


Love Without Borders

by cyberpunk2183



Category: Carol (2015), The Price of Salt - Patricia Highsmith
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Canon Lesbian Relationship, Cats, Elves, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Sleepy Cuddles
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-17
Updated: 2020-01-19
Packaged: 2020-06-30 11:41:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 58,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19852441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cyberpunk2183/pseuds/cyberpunk2183
Summary: A Scout elf explores the vicious Taint that has contaminated her world. Dark portals threaten the status quo and yet in the midst of such strange times a cat stumbles across her path and chooses to stay with her. Can a friendship and love blossom between races when so much hatred is shared between their people?(The one where Therese is an animagus--capable of switching between human and cat form and Carol is an elf.)





	1. The Cat and Her Maiden

**Author's Note:**

> This AU is based on multiple fantasies I've read, but is supposed be read as a High Fantasy much like the Lord of The Rings. Enjoy cat version of Therese--she's the only reason this exists.

The taint corrupts the air of the unenlightened. Their oblivious little town reeks of copper, mildew, and filth. Wrinkling my nose, I step through the narrow alley, tuck my shoulders down tighter in hopes of alleviating my height problem. I’m too tall for the human females, but not the tallest creature in the alley. A formless green cloak hides my gender well enough as I follow the invisible tendril, curling me toward the rotten innards that I will surely find at the end of this rope.

Human architecture is utterly boorish. Stone and wooden square boxes out in the open near a river. They cut through nature like a knife, rather than yielding to her grace. Mud slicks up my leather soles and I am sure a lot else. It’s rather disgusting in these small meager places. They can’t even put down proper cobblestones or make a a proper path.

Laundry hanging overhead and old fat women dumping their dirty water and filth out the windows. Twice I’ve sensed it and moved out of the moment just in time. It’s as if they know I’m a stranger and wish me to leave. I glare up at them and they shove a finger up at me. 

Brutish creatures. I reach the house, a door ajar and ancient brown vines cling to it as if they are strangling it closed. The taint is thick here. Dizziness strikes me as the overwhelming scent of copper and rust hit my nostrils. My hand flicks out toward the slightly ajar door and slides open enough I can slip through.

Rats scurry deeper into shadows as I step through the tiny gap. A huge foyer, staircase, and a broken roof that sheds light and dust motes as the garish vines loom across the floor, walls, and along any standing structure. Carefully, I step over them, not wishing to disturb whatever rests within the house.

The shadows are dark outside of the sunlight and thick. It’s as if something is waiting passed the closed doors and the thick darkness, curling tighter and demanding why I have the audacity to step forth into its clutches. Sickness sweeps through me and I wonder what the Eldress would say to such old darkness.

Probably, _run, you fool!_ But that has never been my way, nor shall it. I am not the type to set forth into shadow, but I do not cower from it either. That is why I am Scout.

My feet touch the old boards of the staircase and on light feet I find my way up, avoiding the vines and the creaks that would make my presence known if there is some fool human in here. I know whatever darkness or taint rests in this place already knows I am here. There is no doubt about that.

The deeper I tread into this madness, the more sure I am of that as the presence thickens and a vision strikes in my mind. Instead of vines, thick tentacles squeezing and tightening.

Suddenly, my lungs constrict and air is hard to find as I press forward, I stagger and my hand reaches passed the light and dares to cleave to the wall. A vine reaches out with an ugly broken flower and my fingers graze it. I choke and the flower disintegrates. A low groaning alerts me to a coming danger as the floors begin to tremble. The vine continues to collapse as if it is a single string binding the whole house together.

With speed, I leap toward the staircase and run down as the stairs buckle and turn to sand underneath my feet. Like a cloud the taint follows me out the door as I run and cover myself deeper in my cloak and shove passed the humanity in my way—my cloak turning the color of the taint and hiding me from sight.

Coughing, I reach a safe place, gasping and struggling to get my lungs to function properly. Dreadful, terrible cursed places, and always among the lesser races. A portal had been open here. I pat out the bleak grey of my cloak until the ranger green returns and my kid gloves have to be patted as well. I take them off and immediately notice a odd thing at my feet.

It is quite a strange little creature, all black and peculiarly fuzzy. I’d seen them before—the rat and mice catchers the humans employ for food scraps, but this one is utterly tiny and the green eyes are nearly lost in the massive pupils that dare me to stroke its adorable coat. I stare down quite perplexed as the charming creature loses its focus and begins to play with a loose thick woolen thread that has escaped my cloak.

“Well, darling, you are awful tiny to be out on your own, are you not?” I ask as I bend down with ease. The kitten meows at me and rolls over on it’s back as it struggles to take in the whole length of me, before managing to sit ramrod straight and offer it’s paw as if to greet me, but instead boops my nose in an utterly preposterous manner. No one has ever dared do such a thing to me.

I reach out to return the favor but it pounces back, tail flicking in a challenge, before tumbling bottom over paws again. Such an ungraceful thing despite it’s parentage, I think as I rise to my feet and dare to cross closer to it. There’s something peculiar about this tiny beastly little creature and I can’t quite put my finger on it. 

It rubs up against my ankles with a sort of familiarity and before I can bend down to snatch the kitten properly, it darts off again. It looks back at me with such piercing green eyes, I get the feeling it wants me to follow it. Not one to turn away from such an invitation I follow the little pouncing creature back into the busy market place away from the corrupt house and the smell of a taint portal until I lose sight of it in crowded area.

“Have a seat! Everyone have a seat! The show is about to start,” calls a frank man in a pair of patched tunic and britches. I’m shoved rather unceremoniously into a seat, but am too curious about the kitten to bother reprimanding the idiot that sent me here. I have no interest in watching a petty human show.

“Where is she? Is she back yet?” The man growls and a woman stumbles on stage, causing the crowd to laugh as she adjust her tunic as if she is just slipping it on. Her eyes shoot up to mine and my breath hitches. Those green eyes…it can’t be.

There hasn’t been an animagus among the humans in centuries.

“Idiot, the set—”

“On it!” The girl chirps and ducks behind the preposterous man and rolls out the proper paper of a painted castle and nails it into place before ducking away.

The whole play is utterly terrible. Some satire over the prince and King. They are portrayed with bulbous noses and fornicating beasts. It’s quite dreadful, and will likely get the troop strung up by their necks if they are caught. I merely stay, because of the artwork of the stage. Each painting that is unfurled is more beautiful than the last and it’s quite a horrendous thing that such a terrible play dances across the scenes perverting the intended nature of the works of art.

A hat is passed around after the play and I throw in a mere pence as the cheap woman fusses at me.

“Terrible trite—” I start and she spits on my shoe. When I move toward her, a hand catches my arm.

“Don’t. Not worth it,” comes a gentle voice. “I’m surprised you stayed. You don’t look like the type to stay.”

“I’m surprised you have remained as well,” I say smoothly to the green eyed vixen before me. She’s young, very young for a human. Just on the cusp of adulthood, but there is a flintiness to her eyes and an innocence. She wears a black cloak and a multicolored scarf that isn’t of the people of this town. Gypsy, it says.

“Sometimes we don’t always have a choice.”

“Theres always a choice.”

She snorts.

“Thanks for staying…”

“Your artwork…it’s impressive.”

She tucks her hair behind her ear and I find that I am just as charmed by her human presence as her kitten one. Something warm and ember-like starts to burn in my belly. Something that hasn’t burned for a very long time. No, Carolina. No.

“How do you know they’re mine?” she asks me, eyes flickering with both playfulness and uncertainty. I reach out and dare to touch that pointed chin.

“Oh, I know. I know a lot of things…kitten.”

She gulps and her chin drops away.

“I should go.”

“Then, you must.”

“We’re here until tomorrow,” she says suddenly.

“I leave first thing in the morning.”

“Ah, I see then. Thank you.”

“No, thank you,” I say and step away from the intoxicating young woman. I am no fool, but that woman has me blundering as if I am the innocent child.

Am I shaking? No, I step away and leave for my inn. I will not abide such silliness.

In the tavern, the men are too boisterous and I insist on taking my meal of soup in my rooms, but curse them all, I can still hear them through the floor as they sing their merry drunken songs of whoring wenches and vile spirits. I turn the soup out the window and bury my head in the pillow, glad to be rid of my heavy cloak in such warm weather, but a necessity lest the humans see what I truly am. Sharp Ears are not welcome in this part of the land, our flavor of magic is a source of fear to the unenlightened.

The bed’s lumps curve against my spine and promise a terrible night’s sleep. I stretch and think about the green eyed girl that dares to stay in my thoughts for quite too long. It’s dangerous to become partial to vulnerable things and that sweet little face is definitely a vulnerability. 

She would see me and cower. She would see me and fall for the superficiality of beauty. She is young. The whole idea of her is preposterous, ridiculous and the age difference alone.

And that daring little kitten rises to mind and I regret that I told such a creature goodbye without looking back. Magic like that is unheard of in humans now. She is a rarity, a work of art, and unearthly creature with hands that create masterpieces and she is left to those terrible gypsies. Her paintings stage the profane and preverse when they should be displayed in palaces and universities.

A knock comes to my door, early morning. I rise to find a serving wench at my door and she tilts her head at my apparel. I have wrapped a scarf around my head and hair.

“You’re a tall one, ain’t you?” she asks me frankly. I nod my head. “You a right noble, now?” 

“A distant cousin of the baron, but quite impoverished of late,” I say mildly. “Is there any reason you have come barging at my door before sun up?”

“Oi, aren’t you a sassy one. Someone dropped off these beauties, so not as poor off as you say,” she says and dangles my kid gloves in front of me. I snatch them away from her fists. “They’ll be down at the tavern for breakfast in a black cloak. Better hurry if you want to see them.”

I give her a silver coin to say my thank you and she chirps as I pull my own cloak on and look about the tavern.

Well, well, well…seems my kitten is a smart one after all.

Her eyes flick up to meet mine and I cross to her.

“Is this seat taken?”

“I didn’t intend to wake you at this god forsaken hour,” she says embarrassed. “Silly girl.”

“I was already up as you can see,” I reply and slide in the offered seat. I pull out a long pipe and stuff the crushed weed I carry in a pouch and light it. I offer her a pinch, but she shakes her head. 

“A bit early for me.”

“What’ll you have missus?” The tavern keeper says with a mighty yawn as he scratches his barrel-like belly. 

“I’ll have my usual.”

The young woman’s eyes flash open when he looks at her and her cheeks color adorably as she taps at the heavy oaken table.

“Whatever she’s having, please,” she replies and swallows. Those pretty pink lips enchant and enthrall me. The tavern keeper slips away and we have relative privacy if we keep our voices low.

“I’m Lady Carolina, cousin of the Baron,” I lie. “No use getting flustered. I dare say I have fallen on hard times.” I wave my hand as her mouth drops. “Tell me your name now.”

“Therese Belivet.”

“Therez…now that’s an unusual name.”

“My parents were Easterners. They came during the drought.” 

“Were?”

“They died of cholera when I was young. The sisters took me in and I hired myself out to the gypsies to see as much of the world as I could.”

“Quite daring. It’s a beautiful name,” I admit. “Very charming. I guess, I must thank you. For not only showing me your fine artwork, but also for taking the time to track me down and return my gloves.”

“You thought I’d be a boy, didn’t you?” she asks me shyly. I laugh and grin at her humor.

“Oh yes. Surely, I thought you were that snappish lout on stage. Such a boor.” She snorts as our meal arrive and she picks at it, surprised by the quiche in front of us. A hearty sun-dried tomato, mushroom, an spinach creation the tavern keeper’s wife makes. “Don’t fret…I’m paying to say thank you. How ever did you find me?”

“A nice lady like you? It was easy. This is the best inn in town. That’s not saying much, but the food is fair and it’s popular. So I asked if there was a strange woman here and they said yes.”

I chuckle at that.

“And do you think I’m strange _Therese Belivet_?” How I delight in saying that lovely scrumptious name. She blushes and squirms at the mere taste of her name on my tongue. My thoughts drift to darker things like where I wish to place my tongue on her and I even shock myself as I hungrily gaze upon the innocence before me.

Enough, Carolina. 

She clears her throat and takes a big drink of the tankard of water.

“Oh, yes, but not in a bad way. I think you’re special. From the moment I saw you…you know…in the alley…I knew you were special.” I drop my chin on my hand as I smile amused at her. So there it is, she will pretty much admit she is an animagus to me.

“Darling, are you saying that my eyes did not deceive me?” She shakes her head slowly. “Do many know of your talents?”

“Only my troop. They’ve used my talents for stealing and attracting customers, causing a distraction…I’ve always wondered what was wrong with me.”

“Oh darling, I assure you. There is nothing wrong with you.”

Her eyes dance and my lips continue to curl tighter as she leans forward. This time she squirms with excitement.

“Everyone calls me a freak, but…you don’t look at me like I’m a freak.”

“No, my dear. You are not a freak. A rarity, a work of art among the drab, you are diamond in the rough,” I say and her cheeks alight again. Then, her countenance falls and a sort of melancholy overwhelms her darling features. I wish to wipe it all away in an instant.

“It doesn’t matter though, does it?” Her voice trembles. “You’ll leave soon and I’ll go back to being a freak.” Her throat bobs and I can see the water cresting in her eyes, but she refuses to let them fall. A cold frigid wall glides between us and my heart begins to crumple. 

I throw a few silver coins on the table, more than enough to cover our food and offer my hand.

“Come along, while I finish packing and we will have a proper talk.”

She looks up, eyebrows rising and her mouth dropping open a little. It snaps shut as my hand grazes her cheek.

“Such a strange girl, you are…Therese. Simply…flung out of space.” She reaches up and takes my hand properly and I pull her toward my room.

I let her sit on the bed as I pull up my satchel and finish packing my belongings into it. Then, I remove my scarf so she can properly see what I am.

“You’re an elf!”

“I am not Lady Carolina, cousin of the Baron. No, I am Lady Carolina, second daughter of Ser Virmire of the Woodland Elves. You may call me Ro here. My people call me Lina and I have never liked such a name.”

“Ro? Lady Ro.”

“Scout Ro.”

“You’re too pretty for such a name,” Therese whispers, cheeks flushed. “You’re….you’re the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen.” I shake my head, my worst suspicion coming to fruition in the wide eyed wonder of a green-eyed vixen. I wave my hand over my face to contort the illusion and become a wizened old hag for her.

“Is that better?”

“Is that your true form?” she asks undaunted. Her knees come to her chest reflexively as she holds her wrist with one hand and rocks forward with a playful grin.

“Can you change to different forms?” I inquire, faking an old lady’s drawl and she laughs.

“You’re bad at that. That’s not your true form. Only the black cat. Sometimes I can make her older when I think about it hard,” she says and I lift an eyebrow and let my true form return. “You don’t like when I call you pretty?”

“Superficial nonsense,” I say, puffing on my pipe. “It only gets me in trouble or noticed.”

“Oh, I understand that. Being a girl is terrible sometimes.” 

“Has someone hurt you?” I ask and turn upon her sharply and she ducks her face against her knees.

“Ro…Lady Ro, don’t ask me that. Things happen, bad things happen all the time in this world.”

“You do not fear me.”

Her head pops up and that curiosity returns with that innocent playfulness that curls around those pouty lips. The embers threaten to light as I take a breath and catch the wild scent of her.

“No…they say Sharp Ears are dangerous, but they also say magic’s dangerous and I’m magic folk too and I’ve never hurt no one,” Therese says, jutting out her chin. “Do you want to hurt people?”

“Quite the contrary. I am here on urgent matters to protect people, even foul human creatures.”

“Hey, now…I’m one of those foul human creatures.”

“You just admitted you were different. Other…not quite human, are you?” I ask and her cheeks flush again.

“You think I’m that different?”

“I do. Not elven, but there is a wild magic in you and that is not human,” I say and sniff again. “Wild…I will think on it…more. But that brings us to a crossroads, kitten. You aren’t afraid of me. I do not wish to leave you here. But I am not sure what I can offer you. My people will not accept you easily, but we could try. I would like to train you in your magic. We are compatible.”

“We are?”

“Yes, elves, woodland elves have nature’s magic. While we have tamed it…it is the same branch that your wild magic has been birthed from. It will be a challenge, but I am up for it if you promise to try hard every day.”

“Oh! I would, I would!” she says. “But…but I’m owned.”

“Owned?” Saddened to see a despair return to her face. I reach and stroke her cheek and she tilts her head into my hand like the kitten she is and looks up at me with concern.

“Richard Semco purchased me from the Sisters,” she says. “If I run away I’ll put you in danger. As it is, I better go back. I just came to return to the gloves and…I’m sorry if I got your hopes up, but I knew you were special and could tell me things.” The tears start coming now and I stop her before she gets to the door, towering over the small creature.

“No, we must try if you wish it,” I say. “I will talk to him if you want to come with me. We will not leave on such terms. Wild magic is not meant to be owned.” I stroke the tears away and she beams up at me.

“Really?”

“Really. Let me grab my bag and we will talk to your Richard, but not a word of my true identity. I am Lady Carolina out in that world. Alone I am Scout Ro or as you wish Lady Ro.”

“Okay…we’re really doing this though? He might get mad. He gets mad.”

“I will handle him, darling,” I assure her, settling my bow and quiver too. Then, I finally put up my hood. “How do I look?”

“Like a mysterious lady,” she says with a friendly smile. “Um…thank you, Lady Ro. I don’t know how I will ever repay you if this works.”

“We will sort that out in time. It is unimportant. You will not be owned by anyone though. Myself included,” I assure her and open the door. “After you…”

She prances down through the tavern and out the door. I follow her and am immediately reminded by the ungraceful kitten as she is easily distracted by the bright colors of an awakening town. The fresh bread stalls waft their delicious scent and for a moment as the sunlight peaks over the roofs I can almost imagine a human world without the taint.

But it does not last, for even the taint shrouds itself in reddish fibers along Therese’s cloak and in the fists of two fighting drunk men from last night’s party. Before they stumble sloppily into Therese I side step and stick an ankle out for one of them to trip over. They both go rolling into the mud, none the wiser and Therese is spared.

She is already after the scent of a tart cart unaware of the danger. She shuffles out two pence and brings one over to me.

“This is a good breakfast too and you hardly ate,” she says and offers me a warm tart. “Strawberry today.”

“Thank you, kitten,” I murmur and tentatively bite into the wondrous concoction. “Mmm. It is very fine.” She beams and darts again toward the main fountain in the town that has naked angels shooting water from bowls. She jumps on the mouth of the fountain and balances precariously.

“Careful, darling,” I find myself saying, but she winks at me before jumping off and darting again through the crowd. I pick up speed to keep up with her, but I remember clearly the way to the makeshift stage.

The blustering idiot that must be Richard is begging for coin with his hat. He stops when Therese nearly bumps into him and he catches her by the shoulders.

“Where ya been, Therese. Such a blundering thunderhead, wasting good coin on this shite,” he says. His meaty fists grabs the tart and crushes what’s left of it in her hand and I can tell he is hurting her.

“Stop at once!” I bark in true speech. His hand drops hers and I can already see the purpling bruises there. “You will not touch her again.”

“She is mine to do what I will,” he says with a sneer. “No fine lady can tell me otherwise.”

“Everything has a price and broken goods will not fetch a decent one at that,” I tell him. “What say you? I need a maid.”

“She’ll rob ya blind, you crazy bat.”

“I want her.”

“She’ll run away back to me.”

“It matters not. Money is money, is it not, Mr. Semco?”

“Well…a gold piece never hurt anyone.”

“Then, it’s settled. One gold piece for the girl?”

Therese opens her mouth, but I step on her foot to keep it closed.

“Yes. One gold piece and you’ll have the good for nothing she-devil.”

I flip out the coin and catch Therese’s wrist gently, sending healing waves down to her fist.

“Good day, Mr. Semco and farewell. Come along, girl.” I pull her along until her uncoordinated feet follow me.

“You paid too much. I tried to tell you,” she says. “He only paid five silver coins for me. You paid double.”

“You’re worth a hundred gold coins, my little kitten. Now, it is time to leave this dreadful place.” She skips a little following me and looking at her healed hand in wonder.

“We’re going on adventure?” she asks, beaming wildly and free. I find myself smiling at the minx.

“Yes…we’re going on an adventure, kitten.”


	2. The Good Witch

“Do you have any gear or personal possessions?” I ask the young woman bouncing beside me on her heels. Her face is one beaming smile that sends warmth through the stiffness of my chest. Shaking her head, she spreads her arms out wide.

“What you see is what you get,” Therese replies. “Thank you so much. Are you sure I’m free? It feels like you bought me, but I don’t care, because I can tell you’re nice. Nicer than Richard.” She leaps around me as we walk toward the market.

I wave my hand.

“Of course, you’re free, darling. Free as a bird. You can leave now, but let me get you some things first,” I say. “It would be an oversight on my part if I left you with nothing.”

“Oh,” she says, deflating quickly and stopping in her tracks. Her hands raise up as she nervously pulls at her multicolored scarves. “I thought—I thought—I was coming with you? I’ve never been on my own before.” Looking back at her, I smile gently.

“You may come with me, but I make no promises on how long you can stay with me. I would like to train you as I said, but my people are very strict on who they allow in the woodlands. I hoping your special attributes will convince them. Now, come along, dear. We have a lot to do in a short time.”

I offer her a hand and her whole face lights up again. She springs forward in one leap to grab my hand and soon she is prancing along side of me, holding my arm tightly and fingers glossing over my woolen green cloak.

“I’m so excited,” she whispers.

“I can tell, Therese,” I say, slightly amused by her juvenile behavior or perhaps it is the cat in her. It is truly hard to tell where the cat begins and the human ends with this one. Her hand in mine allows me to feel the crinkle and sprightly feeling of the tangled magic within her. Where my nature is calm, hers is utterly chaotic and quite charming.

We stop at various booths and stores to acquire extra stores and a pair of kid gloves for her.

“Can we get dried fish?” she asks. I shake my head.

“No, I will catch you fresh fish.”

“Really? Yum, I’ve only had fresh fish very rarely,” she says, licking her lips.

“Does your cat need dry food?”

She scrunches up her nose, but nods.

“Not a lot if you fish, but I’d appreciate it. She gets hungry,” Therese says. “Even if I eat…”

“No worries,” I say and make a small purchase of the necessary items for her feline self. Magic would make her hungrier and I am sure I will need to make sure there is plenty of food for all the extra calories she burns during the change. I go to buy her a sleeping roll, but she starts to fuss.

“I always sleep as a cat…I’ve found it’s safer,” she whispers in my ear, having to stand on her tiptoes and I have to lean down rather precariously as she pulls on my shoulder to lower me. 

“I see…well, we can have it just in case you change your mind?” I ask and she pauses. “Okay, we’ll buy it at the next town if you require it. How are your boots?” 

“Fine,” she says and looks at them. 

“Up,” I command and pat the bench I’ve taken a seat on. She plops a well worn and tattered boot beside me. I pull it into my lap as she has to hop to stay standing. “Easy,” I say and wait for her to settle. “You are not very graceful for a cat.” My lips turn up in a wry smile.

“Sometimes cats are graceful, sometimes they are not,” she says, lifting her chin as if I’ve insulted her. I smile as I look down and quickly frown at the state of the sole of her boot. It’s torn through in sections and surely must leak terribly. I return her foot to her. “Off to the cobbler with you. Show me the way.”

“Really, they are fine…”

“You’ve outgrown them and they must leak terribly. I will not have you sick. We will be walking quite far and you must have good shoes.”

“You’ve already wasted the morning getting all this stuff and now this will take the rest of the day!” Therese fusses at me. I shake my head and raise my hand to stop her.

“It is important to be prepared for a journey. I can be set back one more day. We’ll stay at the inn again.”

“Are you sure?”

“Absolutely…okay, fine. I don’t know how to thank you for this. It’s all a bit too much.”

“No, it is not,” I reply and follow her pace to the cobbler. We sort it out quickly and he goes to make her shoes. They will be ready by the morning. Stepping out, she turns to me and grabs my arm again. I look down at her hand and up to her face.

“I know a better place than that inn. It’s quiet and you’ll like it much better. Do you trust me?” she asks. I measure her carefully and finally nod.

“Yes, Therese. I do trust you,” I say softly and she leads me away from the market to the edge of town. The house she leads me to is two stories, very straight and narrow, with a tiny fenced in yard. Pink cheery flowers and vines border the door and windows and there is a garden full of vegetables and herbs in the front. “She sells her rooms out to travelers. I don’t think she even has anyone right now. She likes to feed my cat.”

“Delightful,” I say and knock on the door. It flies open to show a thick waisted older woman with a tired smile. “I’ve heard you let out your rooms. Can you board Therese and I for the night?”

“Oh absolutely. I’m Ruby Robichek. Come in, come in,” she says, shuffling back into an ancient looking interior. It’s a bit dilapidated and worn as she is. A fresh swath of wrinkles around her eyes and mouth and skin darkened by hours in the sun. “It’ll be a silver a night for the pair of you and I’ll include your dinner and breakfast.”

“That will be lovely, dear,” I say and wave Therese in and feel the bit of warm magic that cuddles about the place in dark corners, like a gentle roasting fire when it is obviously in the other room. She must be a fire witch of some kind.

“Is my kitty hungry?” the woman asks Therese and her eyes widen. The woman seems to notice no difference in the forms Therese takes as she strokes her chin quite forwardly—unless human customs have changed that much. I shake my head at the sight of the older woman petting Therese. “I have a fish!”

I cover my mouth.

“Fish?” Therese whispers, wide-eyed. “Fish, Lady Carolina!” She pats my arm excitedly.

“Would you like it cold or roasted, darling?” I ask, not sure if Ms. Robichek will think to prepare it differently.

“She usually likes it cold,” the woman confirms my suspicions.

“Oooh, can I have roasted tonight, please, Ms. Robichek?” Therese wheedles.

“Well, of course, my kitty. All you had to ever do was ask.”

“Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!” Therese springs forward and hugs the woman tightly and she chuckles, patting Therese’s head and threading her hand through her hair. I chuckle at the unusual pair as Therese grins into the bust of the thick woman, before releasing her.

“You both take your gear upstairs, first door on the left and I’ll call you down for dinner.”

We walk up the crooked staircase. I notice old paint, pink and green faded and cracked along the banister and every footfall of Therese’s sends the thing sputtering and creaking.

“You don’t make any noise,” Therese points out on the top of the stairs. “And wasn’t Ms. Robichek acting peculiar? She thinks I’m a cat right now.”

“She’s a fire witch darling and very old. I doubt she can tell the difference anymore. And I am extremely light as I am an elf,” I say. “Much lighter of foot than humans, even a darling little kitten like you.” She makes a disgusted face and snorts.

“I like her,” she says as she opens the door, peaking in curiously and flinging open the door. “Oof the bed is small for you.”

“Most beds are,” I say with a light chuckle. She smiles at me and I feel my heart flutter.

_Stop being silly, Ro._

I drop my satchel on the round table in the corner as Therese bounces on the bed.

“Cloak off,” I say and she sighs, before bouncing up and removing the cloak.

“I always feel like I’m taking my fur off,” she admits. “Humans are so strange, don’t you think?”

“Terribly. After all my years, they still surprise me,” I say with a soft smile. She tilts her head and bats her eyes at me with a little smile. Before she scurries around the bed to the window. She flings it open and peers out.

“Terrible view,” she pouts. 

“What do you expect, darling? It’s Waterloo,” I reply, sliding off my cloak. I grab hers and hang them on the hooks that are available on the wall. I pat them down and adjust my scarf over my head.

“Won’t she see you too?”

“I don’t know yet, darling. Until she says something, I don’t want to risk it,” I say. “She may only see my magic or perhaps not. Elves are extremely ancient.”

“But not me?”

“No, not you,” I say. “Your magic tastes new, quite tangy actually, but overall very pleasant.” She makes another face and pounces off the window sill.

“Do you mind if I take nap? A lot happened today,” she says with a big yawn. “I’ll become a cat so you can rest too, if you like.”

“Do whatever you prefer, Therese. I will not invade your space,” I say and she looks at me like I’m a new creature.

“No, it’s your bed. There’s room for both of us. See!” Suddenly, Therese vanishes and her clothes plop down to the floor and the kitten, now an adolescent kitten leaps, grabs the corner of the bed and pulls herself up quite proudly, sitting straight. I tilt my head and nod.

“Yes, I see. Now there is quite a bit of room for the both of us,” I say and Therese meows at me, before prancing to the pillows, digs underneath the blanket until she has herself curled up on the other side of the bed. She looks at me expectantly.

So I nod and settle on the bed without pulling down the covers as it’s much too early for that. I lay down flat and just as Therese suspected my feet hang off the bed. Looking over at her, I see her peering at them expectantly as if she wants me to pull them on the bed.

“Tonight…I do not wish to take off my boots at this moment. Too much fuss,” I say to her and she settles back down. “Sleep well, kitty.” She purrs a little and my hand instinctively lifts to stroke her head and the purr grows tenfold as I pet her head and chin carefully as cats tend to like, before retracting my hand. Therese yawns, pink tongue curling, and quickly falls asleep.

I do not. Instead, I examine the strange little creature. She has a tuff of white hair on her chest, not very large and those cunning and brilliant green eyes are hidden under eyelids as the kitten sighs deeply. I wonder if Therese has an older cat form too and when she choices to use it. 

I would never have suspected on my trip to explore the taint, I would discover an animagus. They are so very rare and now that I have one in tow. I do not know exactly what I will do except train her as well as I can. I know for a fact that the eldress will not be pleased with me for bringing a human home. In fact, I suspect it will be grounds for expulsion if I choose to keep her as my apprentice.

Is this small creature worth that? But if I leave her, she will surely be lost in a land of taint. A world of wickedness and debauchery that will consume her and turn her to evil things. I do not think I could bear the thought of such an innocent creature turned to much worse things.

With a tiny sigh of my own, I close my eyes and dare myself to rest.

“Supper time!” Ms. Robichek calls us down to eat. I pat Therese a few times and she yawns, stretches and stretches.

“I’ll go down so you can get dressed, darling,” I say and roll to my feet, adjust my scarf and smell the wild scent of her magic. I kindly do not look back, but slip out the door and trot down the stairs to the round dinner table with a spring green hand-stitched table cloth with doilies and pink leather placemats.

It’s very charming as she waves me to sit down.

“Oh, where’s kitty?” she asks disappointed. “She has a habit of disappearing.”

“Oh, do not worry, Ms. Robichek. She will be down immediately. There she is…see?” I say as Therese stumbles down the stairs with messy hair and pulling on her tunic. She yawns again as she plops in the seat next to me.

“Fish?” Therese says in an excited, sleep-filled voice. Ms. Robichek chuckles and warmly places a dish of roasted fish in front of her. My dish has fish, rice, and vegetables. 

“I know you are a cat, Therese, but you really must eat your vegetables too,” I say and pass along a few carrots and a pieces of asparagus.

“Do I have to?” Therese bemoans.

“Yes, darling. You have to,” I say and find myself patting her hair much like Ms. Robichek as if she is indeed a cat in this form too. Therese doesn’t seem to notice as she starts in on her fish quickly and glances at me after a few bites and tentatively eats a carrot.

“You have charmed the little kitty, haven’t you?” Ms. Robichek says in a matronly voice as she bustles to sit down and eat her own plate of food. “My dear Mr. Robichek would have adored you, dear.”

“I wish I could have met him,” Therese says, barely looking up from her food. “I bet we would have fun.”

“Oh yes, he was quite a jolly man. I do miss him so. Will you be traveling with Lady Carolina?”

“Yes…So I don’t know when I will see you next, but I will miss you. You were my favorite in this whole town.”

“I know. You are my favorite too. I will miss my kitty, but I’m glad you found someone to finally claim you and take care of you properly.”

“Oh, she says she isn’t my owner,” Therese says with a shake of her head. 

“Can you really own a cat? Don’t they choose you?” Ms. Robichek wonders and Therese doesn’t respond as she is half deep in her fish while we have barely taken a few bites.

“Therese chose me,” I say and Therese looks up. “She found me in a back alley and has insisted on showing up until it became unimaginable to leave her behind.”

“Cats can be so charming, don’t you agree?”

“Charming is one word for it,” I say, voice dripping with sarcasm. Therese’s cheeks flush as she finishes her first fish.

“This is so good, Ms. Robichek. Your fish are so good. I never had fish before I met you.”

“They come straight from the pond, dearie. I catch them fresh every morning,” she says with a wide, beaming smile. “Now, you are quite beautiful and tall.” This is to me. I nod.

“So people say,” I reply, civilly.

“I haven’t felt anything quite like you for some time. The kitty is special, of course, but I’ve felt your sort from time to time. I have a few who visit every few years, but since my husband died I see them less. I don’t know why. Do you?”

“I’m afraid I don’t. Do they seek healing from you?”

“No, I do not heal. I offer a different set of service. Prophesying, seering, and divination.”

“Perhaps you can do a read on Therese and I.”

“Yes, after supper I can gather my cards. I’d do it for free. You two are so interesting I bet I’ll never have a read like yours ever again.”

“You never know. Things surprise me still.”

“Oh, yes…yes, life is full of surprises,” she says with a hum. I let out a little sigh, glad that Therese had taken me here of all places. After the business of the city, I am more than happy to have a gentle household. Therese looks up at me and pats my arm. I’m in a silken blue tunic.

“Mmm, that’s soft,” Therese murmurs. “I like it. It matches your eyes.” I shake my head.

“Finish your fish, darling. I don’t want you hungry later,” I reply.

“You can always come downstairs for a snack, dearie. You know where to find me after all,” Ms. Robichek says with a sweet laugh. “I wouldn’t mind the company as it’s dreadfully quiet around all the time now. I did so look forward to your visits.”

“You’ll have to get your own kitty,” Therese says. “Or find one. There are a few nice ones in town that don’t have a home.”

“I might just do that,” Ms. Robichek says. “I will miss you ever so much.”

After we finish eating, she starts cleaning the dishes and Therese scampers up the stairs, before returning in her kitten form. She settles by the fireplace and curls up, licking her paws and bathing herself.

“Oh there is a tub upstairs if you wish to bathe.”

“It’s quite all right,” I assure her and settle in a lesser used chair. Ms. Robichek sits slowly into her own seat as her knees are creaky and suspect and pulls her needle kit to her lap. Therese’s head snaps up as she darts for a ball of yarn.

“She loves this. Watch,” Ms. Robichek says gleefully and throws a blue ball of yarn across the floor and Therese shoots after it, falling over it as she over jumps, pops back up, and attacks the ball. I have to cover my mouth to hide the smile. Tilting my head, I enjoy the quiet scene of Therese playing and Ms. Robichek chatting away as she stitches a pillow case.

“You were more tired than you thought, dear,” Ms. Robichek’s voice glides over me like a blanket. “Up with you, it’s time for bed. Here’s kitty.” She hands me a very warm and very asleep Therese and she fits in both of my hands easily in kitten form. I nod sleepily and let Ms. Robichek guide me up the stairs and into the extra bedroom. 

I carefully place Therese on the pillow, before preparing for bed. I slip on an oversized tunic and pull back the sheets to curl into the tiny bed. With my knees bent my feet fit under the covers and Therese yawns, stretches, and curls up against my chest. 

Completely shocked, I don’t know what to do, so I hold extremely still and am surprised when sleep falls over me and a warmth fills my chest where she presses.

At one point in the night, I wake up to her missing and spot her on the window sill looking out into the full moon. The ghostly white curtain blows in the soft wind an I wonder what Therese is looking at, but I fall back asleep.

In the morning, I lie on my back, one foot sticking off the bed and Therese is curled up on my stomach, purring fiercely as my fingers graze her bony back. Her black fur is soft in my fingers and I wonder at it.

“Therese, darling…it’s time to get up.” She does not move, though the purring ceases. “Therese…” I offer in a sing-song voice as I scratch her a little harder. She mews and I pick her up gently to have a look at her. The sleepy eyes open to mine and widen a bit as if she is just realizing where and what she was doing. I’m sure if she were in human form her cheeks would be bright red.

“It’s quite all right. It’s the way of wild magic. The boundaries are rarely simply where something begins and ends. You let me know if you are ever uncomfortable.” I place her down on the pillow and rise to get changed. 

When I turn around dressed in a light plaid red shirt, with a grey woolen jacket over that as it promises to be a wet and dreary day and heavier wool pants. I turn to find Therese watching me in her cat form. I lift an eyebrow and she starts and leaps off the bed to hide.

Shaking my head, I leave the room to give her privacy and put my shoes on downstairs. Ms. Robichek has already prepared me oatmeal and made Therese another fish.

“Perhaps Therese would like the oatmeal?” I ask, but Ms. Robichek shakes her head at this and clucks at me.

“No, my kitty always likes fish when she visits. It doesn’t matter the time of day.”

What does this little animagus survive on? This woman has absolutely spoilt her in the short time she has lived here. Therese stumbles down the stairs, looking just as scattered as the night before and hair even messier. I stroke my hands through it a few times and her cheeks are flaming.

“I’m sorry about before…sometimes, I forget what’s right and wrong. Hardly anyone cares in the troop, they treat me like a cat.”

“That’s because you are a cat, dearie. Don’t be so hard on the little girl.”

“Oh, I wasn’t going to get onto you, Therese. In fact, I can only imagine how confusing it must be for you,” I assure her and she nods, giving an embarrassed smile that brings out her delightful dimples, and yet, she won’t meet my eyes.

“Thank you, Lady Carolina for your graciousness,” she says and plops down on her seat. “More fish, Ms. Robichek? You’re simply the most delightful person there is on this earth.” She leans over and gives the older woman a big loud kiss on the cheek. “Thank you so much!”

Ms. Robichek blushes herself.

“Well, dear…it’s nothing. I wanted a good goodbye gift for my best and dearest friend. I will miss you. I caught this one this morning and I thought, oh, it will be a perfect goodbye present for my kitty.” She strokes Therese’s messy hair. “Oh someone needs a good combing. Didn’t your mother ever teach you how to tend your fur?” Therese blushes again as she begins to eat quickly.

“Um…when I was very little I guess, but she disappeared when I was very young,” Therese tells Ms. Robichek, who frowns at this.

“How dreadful. I’m sorry, dear. Even cats need a little mothering. Let me go get you a comb and I’ll brush your fur out nicely.”

“Thank you, Ms. Robichek.”

The woman rises on her stocky legs and goes about to find little comb to brush out the soft fine mane Therese sports until it is all but shiny and untangled. Then, she places the comb near my free hand and I’m reminded of the fact that Therese is not use to keeping her own belongings. A most unusual human indeed.

Therese is finished with her food before I am again and goes to take the bush upstairs for me and brings all my things down to set by the door.

Ms. Robichek happily ignores this as she gives me some preserves in jars and a heavy rain hat for Therese, blinking rapidly as if she can’t quite see straight when she places it on Therese’s head.

“I don’t know why I thought this would fit, but it does. I know you hate the rain.”

“I do. Can we stay another night, Lady Carolina? The rain is terrible.”

“I’m afraid not. I’ll go get your boots so you don’t soak your feet,” I say. “Stay put for me with Ms. Robichek, but we will leave after this.”

“Okay,” she says pouting. I leave the chilly cottage and go to fetch Therese’s new boots. When I return, Therese is near the fire and looking quite miserable at the thought of leaving. 

“Change them,” I say and offer her the fresh pair of boots. “I’ve weatherproofed them.” She gingerly takes them and exchanges them. “Don’t forget your new gloves. It was very kind of Ms. Robichek to give you a rain hat.”

“I’m going to miss her.”

“I’m sure we will see her again one day.”

“Oh before you go!” Ms. Robichek says. “I said I’d do your reading. Come in here, Lady Carolina. The cards are all set out.”

I walk back to the kitchen to see an array of foreign looking cards in front of the woman who is now sparkling with an ancient magic and smells of ash and brimstone. My nostrils flare and I wonder if I am in the presence of a dragon of old, but one can never tell these days.

“It’s quite serious. I fear for you. There are forks and decisions to be made, a friend or foe who will take something you love away, a door will shut, and there is the death reaper card. You will face your death or someone you care for. I’m sorry it isn’t better news.”

“I understand and I appreciate it. After what I’ve seen I’m not surprised at all. The taint has been getting considerably worse and I’m sure there will be a reckoning.”

“Yes…” Ms. Robichek says. “Wicked days. That’s all I’ve seen. If you need another reading or scrying let me know. Just swing by.”

“Of course, darling. I hope it won’t be too long,” I say and turn to face Therese looking worried. “Oh don’t worry, lion heart. I know it sounds bad, but I promise I will look after you and I dare say your fate wouldn’t be much different apart from me. As she says wicked days are upon us.”

Therese doesn’t move for a moment and I worry she will not come with me after hearing this news, but quite suddenly she runs into me and hugs me tightly, rubbing her face against my cloak. I stroke her head and back until she relaxes and she lets out something that sounds suspiciously like a purr.

I gently pull up her hood, grab both sides of her face to make her meet my eyes and she does, lifting a questioning eyebrow.

“Do you wish to come with me, Therese?”

“Yes, Lady Carolina. I wish to come with you.” Her voice sounds so wistful, frightened, and yet excited. I tuck her into another quick hug to pat her back before adjusting her rain hat. 

Then, I pull my satchel over my shoulder and offer her my hand since she seems to enjoy that. She smiles until her dimples pop and we step out onto the winding road away from the city and into the wilderness.


	3. The Great Wide Wonder

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning: This chapter leaves off on a cliff hanger where a character is threatened with rape. Skip the last portion once she is captured if this will bother you.

Therese is not use to walking far. I wonder if she is accustomed to traveling as a cat or in a cart. Her feet plop heavily through the puddles and the mud of the road around midday. Her breeches and cloak are stained nearly to her waist. 

“It’s time for lunch,” I announce and she perks up instantly. 

“Where shall we eat it?” she asks, looking around at the empty road and the rolling hills that have turned marshy. I point to a higher knoll.

“It will be dryer there,” I say. “The ground.” She takes a deep breath and follows me up the hill, grabbing my arm when she starts to slip and I catch her elbow, before guiding her the rest of the way. I set down my satchel and pull out a few items to eat, dried meat, cheese, bread, and an apple and motion for her sit down on the satchel.

“What about you?” she asks me and I squat down as is traditional for my people while traveling. “Won’t you get tired?” I shake my head and smile at her.

“I won’t,” I assure her. “Come on, eat.” She sits and gazes at me as I hand her the apple and she wrinkles her nose. “You are not always a cat.” She takes a bite and another before I hand over the meat. She eats this too with much more relish and I eat the elven bread that I like and my own apple.

She gazes at me curiously as she eats with excitement, but without as much vigor as when she ate the fish from Ms. Robicheck. When we near a body of water I must catch her some just to see that joy in her eyes again.

“You’re tired,” I say and she blinks at me, but shakes her head.

“No, I’m fine,” she says, stubbornly. “I’ll walk faster. I’m sorry. The rest will help.”

“You didn’t walk before did you?” I ask her. Her lips tighten and her cheeks tinge pink. “It’s okay, Therese. If you didn’t.”

“They always said it was easier if I became a cat. They’d carry me or throw me in the cart. Less space that way. The worst was when they’d stick me in a bag. Don’t stick me in your satchel please,” she whispers. “It’s hard to breathe.”

“Oh Therese,” I whisper. “How about on top of my satchel and if it starts to rain I’ll put your hat over you? I know you are tired. You can walk as far as you can each day until you’ve developed the strength to keep up with me. I spent my whole life walking. I don’t expect you to keep up if no one expected the same of you.”

“Are you mad?” she asks me, not meeting my eyes.

“No, darling. Of course not. You’re not in trouble.”

“Please, don’t stick me in the satchel if you change your mind. I get so scared…I can’t change back when I’m emotional.”

“Darling…” I whisper, aching and angry that someone had done something so terrible. “I would not…” I clear my throat, finding that it’s difficult to speak. I search my cloak for my pipe to settle my nerves and light it. It takes three tries to light the match and then the grass within. I puff the smoke away from her, staring away. “You don’t have to change.”

We sit and eat quietly.

“I’m slowing you down,” she finally says. “And I’m tired.” Suddenly, she’s a tiny kitten and I’m amazed again at the small creature that climbs from her clothing. Wide eyed and mewling. My lips tug upward as I savage her clothes and place them in my satchel before they get anymore muddy.

I drape her cloak over the satchel and gather a few pieces of the hard kibble. I know she must be hungry. She shakes her paws out from the damp earth and I pat my lap. She leaps up easily and her weight is little to none. She eats heartily, much better than the food earlier. Then, I settle her on the ground again, put the satchel on my back, and pick her up again.

She looks at me with such a dreadful look of wide eyes and mews a weak meow. She is helpless in this moment, I realize. 

“It’s okay, Therese. I will never intentionally harm you,” I say and pat my shoulder, letting her crawl up there herself. She nuzzles my cheek and crawls on top of the satchel. The weight of her tiny warm body presses softly, but firmly against my neck. Her paw presses against my skin and she shifts into a settled position.

“Ready, darling?” I ask and she meows. I take that as a yes and begin to walk. My pace is much quicker now that I don’t have to slow down intentionally for her. 

After an hour or two I feel her purring and I smile to myself. She is a sweet thing. Eventually, she falls asleep and I see the sun begin to drift downward. I’ll have to find a place for us to sleep. Someplace safe. 

Traveling is not always safe. With the taint, the viciousness of humanity affects the roads. There are murderers, rapists, and thieves. The hills are deeper in this area, now that I’ve traveled three times the distance we had before. 

I settle my satchel carefully and Therese blinks up at me, stretching. Her pink tongue folds up and then she shuts her mouth. Green eyes piercing as she tilts her head at me, leaping down and pawing at her cloak.

“Let me put up the tent. If you need to change…you can change in there.” I’ve done this numerous times, a little protective shelter for rainy days. I use the cleft and rock of the hill to stabilize and then I carefully fold out my bedroll and her clothes, before shutting it so she can have privacy.

I turn to face the tiny kitten staring up at me. She trots to the tent, pushes aside the fabric. A few moments later, she sticks her head out again and meows a question at me. Sighing, I slide in and fetch her more food and water, carefully setting out a bowl for her.

I light a small smokeless fire so we can experience the warmth and the light is hidden. I pull our wet things out to dry, strip off my breeches and find a dry loose pair before finding a loose tunic as well. 

When I settle down for supper, cold cheese and bread. Therese trots over to me, rubs up against my thigh and I find my hand stroking her head. Her purring is loud as she crawls on lap. It surprises me. I arch an eyebrow and she seems to realize what she’s done. She starts to stumble off, but I place my hand down to stop her.

“It’s okay. I understand,” I say and stroke her chin lightly. She looks up at me, green eyes large. “You are safe here to be whatever you want with me. I promise. Kitten…woman….the lines are not clear when it comes to wild magic.” Her eyes go to her clothing and then she seems to come to a decision, curling up in my lap and a paw goes to the hand that was stroking her.

I smile and begin to pet her again. She purrs and threads her claws into my loose breeches. Eventually, when I’ve eaten and the embers die down, I curl up under the blanket with Therese who isn’t afraid to cuddle against me—she is so deep in cat mode, it’s charming. 

She curls up, purring again, and drops right back to sleep. I wake again in the middle of the night and find her by the fire, tail twitching, and looking decidedly wild. She peers back at me, eyes slits and we see each other. She walks off and I know she will return, but the cat must wander.

I wake the next morning and Therese, the human, is sitting by the fire dressed and ready for the day. She looks at me, but her eyes quickly drop and her cheeks flush.

“I’m sorry about yesterday…I…the cat got away from me. Sometimes, when I’m a cat too long I forget how to be a person.”

“Therese, I told you it was okay. I understand. With wild magic, it’s not always easy to tell the difference.”

“I know, but…is what I did okay? Was it wrong?”

“No, honey. You were a kitten last night,” I say, propping myself on my elbow. “You did nothing wrong.”

“Oh. Will…when you teach me stuff…will it help me know the difference? When I’m human and when I’m cat?”

“It might…” I say and sit up, the blanket falling away from me. Her eyes flash back over my body, but there is nothing to see but a loose oversized tunic. “It might not. You didn’t just become an animagus, my dear. You were born one. You’re both, darling, and that’s complicated.”

“Oh. I am a cat. I mean, I knew…they even treated me like a cat a lot of the time,” she says, playing with her blouse, looking down and frowning.

“You’re very special, darling. I’m sorry they didn’t treat you like it,” I say and her mouth drops open. She shifts away. 

“Don’t say that,” she whispers. “It’s…I know it’s not true. So don’t.” Her voice is firmer and I frown.

“Okay, Therese. Would you like to learn about your magic?”

“Really?” she asks and her eyes light up. I nod and feel my lips curl up again, glad that she is herself again.

“Yes…” I say. “Come here.” I wave my hand and she carefully rises to her feet and sits next to me with a boneless grace that startles me. Her shoulder presses against mine and I smile at her, rubbing between her shoulder blades. “Take my hand and I want you to breathe deeply. I know it will be hard, but I want you to practice focusing.”

“Focusing?” she asks, shoulders dropping. I nod with a wicked smile. 

“Yes, darling,” I murmur. “Focus.” I stroke her face with my other hand and she looks at me concerned. “Just let’s try. With me.” I take an exaggerated breath. I’m accustomed to meditation and I’m more than curious about a willful mind’s perspective. 

She takes a deep breath and holds it.

“Let it out, Therese,” I say, amused and she let’s it out in a gust. Then, she settles in a better pattern. “Close your eyes and focus inward.”

She makes a little noise in the back of her throat in frustration, forehead bunching. 

“Shhh,” I whisper and stroke away the lines of frustration until she’s breathing softer again. Her fingers start to thump on her thigh after barely a minute. “That’s all for today.” 

Her eyes flutter open, forehead bunched again.

“We didn’t do anything.”

“It’s like walking. It’s a muscle that needs to be grown to see results,” I say. “I never said it would be easy.”

“You never said it would be hard,” she says. “Impossible.”

“Wild magic is always difficult, but not impossible. Nothing is impossible with magic, Therese,” I tell her, stroking her hair from her face and her verdant eyes flicker to my lips and her pink tongue slides across her lip. My eyelids flutter and the warm, sanguine scent washes over me.

_No._

I pull away from her.

“It’s time to pack up camp and get a move on,” I say and she studies me quietly. Before rising to her feet and offering me a hand. Hesitantly, I take those dangerous paws of her and allow her to pull me up.

“You are light,” she says with a playful smile before helping me break camp. “Will you teach me how to light a fire tonight and set up a tent?”

“Of course, darling,” I say as I work. The grey dawn lights the moisture that sticks to the grass of the frolicking fields. It’s simply stunning, so I have to stop for a moment to look out into the wilds. “Darling, it’s beautiful.”

“I thought of you when I saw it this morning,” she says and ducks her head. “I’ve never had such a nice morning before. Thank you.” I reach across the gulf to squeeze her hand gently before I pack everything up in the satchel and we move along. She follows my steady pace today and we are lucky the weather finally broke.

Therese seems to be in a much more cheery mood as she skips occasionally, avoiding the puddles with a true distain today. By noon, we’ve both shirked off our cloaks. She tries to insist on carrying her own, but I show her how I can roll it up on top of my satchel.

“Let me carry it for a bit.”

“No,” I say. “It’s a nice thought, Therese, but you mustn’t.”

“I mustn’t? Won’t I go slow anyway?”

“Don’t argue with me about this. I’m afraid there is something else you must argue with me about and this is such a trite thing.”

“What does that even mean?” she says confused and suspicious.

“Listen with your ears, darling. What do you hear?”

She stops for a moment as if she cannot do two things at once. Her head tilts and her nose wrinkles.

“Water.”

“The river,” I say with a knowing smile. “How do you suppose we will cross it?”

“A ferry?”

I shake my head.

“We are miles south of the ferry. Such a waste of good coin too.”

“A bridge.”

“That’s miles north and the human king has a toll on it,” I say. “It’s shallow here and it’s hot.”

“Oh no…” Therese says, lifting her hands up. “I am not crossing the river.”

“We’re not stopping for lunch until the other side,” I warn. “So unless you want to eat we will cross the river.”

“But Ro!” she whines. Her face absolutely melts into something like terror and disgust and soon I am laughing. She looks so injured that I grab her arms and rub them up and down. “I hate water. I hate _water_ …” 

“I know, darling. Become a kitten and I shall carry you across safely.”

“But then, I won’t be able to talk to you until tomorrow morning. The change…it takes a lot out of me and I know you want to make better time and…” Her head ducks and I pull her to me, stroking between her shoulder blades trying to settle her. “I hate water…”

“Oh kitten,” I murmur. “I know it’s hard and scary, but I will protect you. And tomorrow isn’t so long away. Before you know it, we’ll be chatting away again. We have tomorrow and the next day and all the days after that. There’s no rush in getting to know each other.”

I stroke her hair from her face as I see a tear drip down. Quickly, I wipe it away.

“Don’t cry, my darling,” I whisper, leaning in closer. “Talk to me, please.”

“They would tease me about the water. They didn’t take the ferry or the bridge either. On hot days, they’d spend lounging by the water and they’d force me in. Whether I was cat or human…and I can’t swim and they’d push me under for fun until I thought I’d die. Then, they throw me back on shore and I’d have to climb a tree to get away.”

I pull her to me tightly into a hug.

“Shhh,” I say. “I won’t let anything like that happen again. Remember when you were scared I’d put you in my satchel? Did I?” She shakes her head slowly. Eyes worried and concerned. “Do you think I’d tease you like?” She shakes her head again. “I understand that you are afraid. If I had the money to spare, I would walk the distance for you, but the prices are exorbitant. Much more than you new shoes. Much more than I paid for you.”

She nods.

“Okay,” she says. And before I can say a word, she’s a cat. I’m surprised by her size. She’s still a young feline, but gone are her gangly limbs and her eyes are sharper. I bend down this time and gather her clothes, sticking them in the satchel. She leaps on with ease when I’m finish and I feel her dig her claws in.

Then, we proceed together to the swiftly moving river. It is higher than I would like since the rain of yesterday. I take off my shoes, but don’t bother rolling up my pants for I will soon be soaked through.

It’s cold, biting through my skin and instantly through my clothing as I force myself deeper through the water. Therese hisses as the swiftly moving water splashes against me and inevitably on her.

“Hold on. The current is fierce,” I say. “I’m steady on my feet, but don’t topple me in a panic. Stay calm.”

The river is wide so it takes me a while to navigate it and I’m glad when my feet touch dry land. Then, I place my satchel and Therese on the grass.

“Rest here,” I say. “I’d like to see about catching some fish for dinner.” Therese starts meowing about that and I chuckle. Soon, I’ve crafted a pole and taken line and hook from my bag to tie onto it. Then, I scrounge around through the wet dirt for the big worms that will attract the fish.

It isn’t long before I’ve caught a few. Therese is beside herself with curiosity as I descale them and hang them from my wet belt. 

“Up on my satchel again. Let’s move away from the water and I’ll make you some lunch,” I say. “You were a very good kitty today.” Therese purrs with such excitement I can feel her vibrating against my neck.

When I’ve put some distance between us and the river. I dare to set up a quick fire to roast our finds. I feed bits to Therese until she finally refuses me and finish cooking the rest before stomping out the fire and continuing on.

By nightfall, I’m not satisfied with our surroundings to find a place to camp and Therese is perched like a sentinel on my shoulder. Her ears forward and tail up.

“What is it? Do you sense something?” I whisper and Therese does not respond. I pause and smell the light touch of copper before pain lances through me. I scream out and Therese hisses, leaping off my shoulder and disappearing into shadows. Another arrow pierces my thigh and I cannot keep my feet.

“What do we have here? Trespasser this late at night?” A surly voice announces. A thick man with a bow approaches me. “What are you doing on the king’s hunting ground.”

“You are not a guard,” I say through gritted teeth. “You are a poacher.”

“And so are you,” he says, placing the bow under my chin. “Look at you. Quite the pretty dame. Let me bring you back to the boys and see what fun they’ll have with you.”

“You will do no such thing. I am Lady Carolina, cousin of the—”

“Second Lord of Burgess I’m sure,” he says sarcastically. “You might look of noble blood, but no lady as you say would be wondering this late without an escort and with a bag like that. No _milady_ I know exactly what sort you are.”

“You will release me.”

“I will do no such thing.” He slams his bow across my face, before grabbing my hair and dragging me in a different direction.

The pain splatters stars in my eyes and the rush of copper and decomposition fills my nostrils. Taint. I struggle against the fingers that dig a tighter grip against my hair before he slams me down amongst a circle of similarly dressed men.

They aren’t in rags or riches. Instead their tunics are worn and dirty, patched with well meaning hands. Each one has a thick unshaven beard and look somewhat wild compared to city folk.

The fire burns and the smoke hurts my eyes. Another man grabs my satchel and starts digging through it. He grabs the bag of money, the supplies, and soon they are separating it out among themselves.

I can only hope at this point not for my own safety, but for Therese’s. That she has run some place, perhaps back to Ms. Robicheck. Where she will live the rest of her days as a free kitten. The bow slaps against my face again and stars drift across my vision again.

“Wake up…I need you to fix her up, eh? Maybe we can play with her a bit before she bleeds out or something,” he says, but a man shakes his head examining the wounds with a tender finger.

“No, no…the arteries weren’t cut. Let me cut out the arrows and she will be fine. Truly.” One of the man’s hands has a physician’s quality to it as he shoves an arrow through the entry way and out the other side. I scream, feeling my vision swim and narrow dangerously. He snaps the other’s tail and extracts the head carefully.

The wounds are bathed. They are simply bandaged and my wrists are bound together before me.

“She’s a sharp ear,” the physician says to the others. “She’s not going to do us much good.”

“Well, I wouldn’t mind banging with a pretty thing like her,” says the one that shot me. The other men laugh in a hungry way and the wicked smell of taint thickens in the air and the laughter has a primal edge to it.

I struggle against my bounds, but it’s futile. My body is already fatigued from the loss of precious life blood and my magic is deathly weak because of it. I cannot heal myself in this state not without food or pure water. Not in a place as corrupt as this.

Our rations are eaten with the same sort of carnality and wastefulness that sends chills down my spin. Finally, one stands up away from the fire. He has a thick beard down to his chest, flaked with debris and white stiff curls. He is thick with muscles of living in the wilderness and the scavenging off poor souls.

His dark eyes flick to mine and there is a hunger there. Barbaric and horrid in every sense of the word as if the humanity has been poured out of him and nothing is left but a black void and a crumpled tattered heart. Passion means nothing in this man, he is empty chested and raged with a hunger that cannot be filled.

His thick hand grabs my arm.

“I’m first,” he says in a sour tone and no one fusses with him.

“You will unhand me. I am Lady Carolina and my people—”

“You’re a right bitch, aren’t you? Your people will never know you’re gone. Wandering alone in the wilderness…and you wonder why your people vanished,” he growls at me, shaking me hard. “You’re nothing but animals, so shut your yap.” His grip has tighten and I spit in his face.

“You foul creature! I am a woman. An innocent woman who has done nothing to you! Let me go!” I scream and rage weakly, my limbs leaden with an unbearable sort of hopelessness and the copper tone of the taint threatens me.

He drags me away from the others, through the underbrush, uncaring to my wellbeing. For at the end of this comes no good. Just a rush and burst of ragged pleasure for him and defilement, shattered and brokenness on the other side for me.

I fight and it does no good. He throws me down and kicks my stomach hard, unbuckling his belt and going for mine, pulling it down as I kick.

“Stop! Oh God, please,” I beg him. “Don’t do this. Please. Kill me instead. Hold my throat. Feel your fingers tighten around it and squeeze my life force from me. Won’t that satisfy you more?”

His black eyes trail over mine as he humphs not even addressing me, pulling down my pants and underthings and the chill night air shocks me further. 

This can’t be happening. You are warrior. You are a scout. Elves are not raped like this. This does not happen to me. This is not happening. I shriek one last time and struggle to drag myself away to no avail.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm moving to Spain next Sunday, so it may be a while before I post again. Once I get settled I will start posting again, but obviously on a different schedule. See you on the other side!


	4. Self Doubt

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am dreadfully sorry for such a long wait. My travels, first to Spain and then Morocco and back to Spain, have prevented me from having regular access to my computer. I hope in the future I'll be able to post more regularly. I have so many ideas! I can't wait to share them. Again, I am very sorry for the very long wait on such a terrible cliffhanger. Without out further, ado...

He hovers over me, eyes dark with want, and I squeeze my eyes shut—not wanting the next part. Then, a yowl—a banshee like shriek—fills the air and when my eyes snap open, his are wide and bloodshot. His mouth drops open and the yell is almost a scream from his lips. Then it is a scream as his weight pushes away with a desperate urgency.

I scramble away, struggling to pull up my breeches with my wrists tied. Then, I’m running as panic fills my chest, threatening to burst with it. Hot tears stream down my face as I stumble and keep running. Suddenly, something hits me hard and I go rolling.

“No, no!” I start screaming, but then I feel the fur and squeeze the warm black bundle against me. My feet keep running for several paces before I stop, curl up with Therese tucked into my arms. Her little chest billows in and out in my hands as she pants.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” I whisper fiercely and feel her chewing on the rope around my wrists. She manages to break the rope and I’m free, my skin is broken and bloodied from fighting against it. “I have to go back and get our things.” She puts her paw on my chest and looks me straight in the eyes with urgency. “I have too.” She doesn’t remove it. I take a deep breath and sigh. “Okay. Let’s keep going. I’ll figure something out.”

She meows and I get back up, stagger and keep walking on shaky limbs. I walk until the sun begins to rise. I walk until Therese pats her paw against me repeatedly. The adrenaline has left my system entirely, swaying, I stumble to a knee. I know I will not be able to continue on. There’s something hot and warm pumping down my leg and sending blinding stars and pain through my body.

Finally, I collapse. The impact of the ground shocks me and a groan escapes my lips. I have no idea where I am or where I’ve fallen, but I feel Therese leave me. I moan reaching for her.

My hand bumps against warm, magic-filled skin as she gently removes my cloak from my shoulders. My eyes are too blurry to see her form. All I see is pale flesh and green eyes. Before I start to sob and she pulls me to her.

“It’s okay. It’s okay. Are you okay?” she whispers, holding my face. I shudder and she pulls me tighter against her. “We’ll figure it out.”

“I’m not…. Thank you. I don’t know—” My words are all a helpless jumble.

“Shh, don’t even think about it,” she says. “Not for one minute. Now, there’s a town nearby. I can go and get a doctor. You need a doctor. I can steal stuff.”

“Money?”

“I’m a cat. No one thinks a cat will steal things.”

“You’re not stealing,” I huff, voice low and broken and she smiles at me, stroking my hair.

“Maybe, some food?” she inquires. 

“You should have let me go back.”

“There were five men and you were unarmed and you’re wounded. How did you run so far?” She quickly peals back the blood soaked bandages. “How are you even alive?”

“I won’t be unless you get me food or water soon,” I admit, panting a little. “My natural magic has kept alive for this long, but I am stretched too thin. I’m going to die, Therese.”

“No, you won’t,” she says with such confidence it surprises me. “I smell water…” she says, looking in the direction of something. I can feel it faintly, but I am so weak I cannot tell what it is. Much like my sight, my magic sense is blurred as well.

“It’s only a little farther, but Therese…I can’t,” I say and she nods, pressing her forehead to mine. Arms wrap around me and she lifts me up and walks toward the small creek.

She walks straight into the water, bending down with me wrapped around her until we are in the calf deep water and I gasp. The frigid liquid sweeps over me, taking my breath away as I struggle to cling to her.

She removes the bandages so the water can clean the wounds, pressing my whole body into the water with a strange knowledge of what to do and bringing some of the cool liquid to my dried and cracked lips. It is her own wild magic, calling to her and giving her an earthy wisdom in how to treat our similar magics.

Tongue thick from running and dehydration, I struggle to swallow. It soon fills up the pit of my stomach and I press my face into Therese’s side when she offers more. The last trace of taint leaves me and I feel the return of center, the healing over of wounds, and strength revived at a slow unhurried pace. I will recover, but slowly. It took everything to get us here.

When I start to shiver, Therese pulls me from the water.

“If I get firewood, can you make a fire?” she asks.

“Yes.” My teeth chatter and I don’t want her to leave, but she has to.

She leaves me with my feet in the creek. My wounds no longer bleeding, but I am still shaking terribly. She soon returns arms full of wood. With a touch of magic and wood lore, the fire crackles. It doesn’t take much, but it exhausts an already depleted source. If the wood had been wet I wouldn’t have been able to light it.

“You should change into this cloak. Your things are wet. I’m going to get supper.” Therese vanishes, suddenly a cat again. Not a kitten, but a young cat and she quickly pounces off. I instantly miss her as I shrug out of my things and into the cloak, drawing closer to the fire as my things dry.

A hand shakes me awake much later that night and I blink my eyes open to Therese in my tunic. It’s so long it drops passed her thighs. She offers me a stick with a fish on it, smoked. Then, she sits down next to me with a groan and eats her own.

I eat and there are more fish smoking. She eats as well. Both of us are ravenous. Without asking, I curl into her, because she is warmth and her arm drifts around me, squeezing my shoulder.

“Why are you are here, Ro? This world doesn’t seem made for elves, you know?” she asks. I take a deep breath. It’s the first time she’s asked me about my mission and I wonder what she must think.

“These were once our lands, centuries ago. Humans and elves roamed freely together. They fought, they made love, and had children.”

“What happened?”

“One day, an unforgivable thing happened and my people retreated.”

“What was so bad that it couldn’t be forgiven?”

“The humans started collecting the hearts of elves to open portals into a dark realm.”

“Why? Why would anyone do this?”

“There is addiction and power on the other side. I’ve tasted it, but elves…we have a light immunity. I fear one day I will fall to the taint, because of my exposure to it. My people already think I’ve been contaminated.”

“The taint?”

“The evil, addicting force, of the portals that are open. They change the heart of people. Awaken a devouring sort of desire for all things and nothing is enough to fill the void.”

“But this doesn’t explain why you’re here.”

“I was sent as a scout to explore the state of things. Portals, the taint, and how they were still being opened.”

“Why are you alone?”

“Because…no one else was willing to go,” I say with a shrug. “It was necessary. Someone had to go and I have a strong natural magic. It made sense for me to go.” Therese strokes my face.

“I’m glad you came and I’m not. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“We all get hurt in the end, kitten. I fear, one day even my own people will fall to the taint. I have to find a way to close the portals.”

“You can’t do that alone, Ro,” Therese says quietly. “You have to have help. I mean, how many are there and how dangerous are they? Why is it even your responsibility? Especially if people find out what you are and want to take your heart to open another.”

“It’s not just my responsibility, but I have to report back. I have to tell them and it affects me. It affects all of us. The taint will corrupt us in the end if we don’t work to seal what has been open. For darker things will come and I cannot bear a world where wonderful creatures like you will be turned to evil like the men we encountered.”

Therese tucks her head onto my shoulder, finally full of fish and sleepiness. She’s eaten so much her flat belly is no longer concave. She yawns very largely and I feel her try scuffling closer. Quite suddenly, she is trying to curl up on my lap and looking confused as to why she can’t fit.

“You’re still a human, Therese,” I whisper as I stroke her hair.

“I’m so tired,” she moans from all her changing. Twice in one day had to be extremely exhausting and in close succession, not to mention how emotionally taxing it all was. She curls around me instead and I pull her close and adjust her so I find my own place to sleep too. Her arm wraps around me and pulls me close, face pressed against my stomach. My hand threads through her hair sleepily.

Not that I want to sleep, because closing my eyes feels daunting, but much like Therese I’m exhausted. From the wounds, the running, from the hunger, and the magic depletion. I had been so terribly close to death and I am still recouping from the blood lost and the torn thigh muscles. 

Therese’s hand kneads my side and I hear her trying to purr. I stroke her hair gently. My heart feels too large for my chest as tears silently drip down my cheek. As if she can sense something, she pulls herself up and nuzzles my cheek and neck, burrowing into my side and I find myself clutching at her, hand threaded through her hair even tighter.

There are no kisses. This is intimacy and an urgent need for closeness. Not exactly the things of romance, but I know that the longer this woman is with me the harder it is to imagine a world without her, so I clutch at the tunic tightly and she is so completely out of words that she mewls against me. Her nose strokes my long neck, sending chills through me.

“Shhh, sleep. I’m fine,” I assure her and she seems to calm her kneading and desire to comfort when she, herself, is so tired and exhausted. Her breath evens out and she is soon snoring softly. Soft puffs of air hit my skin.

I find myself staring into that soft dear face. At the woman who had saved me from a terrible fate and I wonder what she has gone through. She has lived a life of a slave amongst gypsy folk. The few things she has spoken of have been terrible and yet, here is the evidence of her kindness.

She did not run away. She could have left me to whatever terrible fate those men had planned for me, but no she came back. She fought for me and we have escaped. I kiss the side of her head, feeling extremely lucky that I have stumbled onto such an incredible gift.

Finally, the heaviness in my eyes win out and I’m dragged into an unpleasant sleep filled with nightmares, but my kitty never leaves me. I wake several times to find her warmth tightly packed against me. When I am whimpering, she is nuzzling and cuddling. Occasionally she speaks with words, but mostly she is mewling or purring in a strange way that speaks of her other half.

Shooting up the next morning, I’m cold still and my kitten is gone. I look around and find her stirring the fire and trying to rekindle it. I reach out and relight the fire again. She nods with a smile.

“Come back to me, please,” I murmur and open my arms.

“I should go into town or we should both go into town and start dealing with our misfortune. I think there is a convent there. We could seek help with the sisters.” She walks over to me and sits next to me and let’s me wrap my arms around her. 

“I’m cold,” I admit, tucking my chin against her shoulder.

“Just cold?” she asks me, lifting an eyebrow. I frown slightly.

“Perhaps I am still in need of comfort. That was terribly frightening.”

“I can understand that. It’s unpleasant when people force themselves on you. I’m sorry that happened,” she says and touches my chin hesitantly. Her green eyes flash with a true sort of sadness and I worry again.

“You came back.”

“Of course I did. I never left! I followed you until I had a moment when I could help you escape. I wasn’t going to let anyone hurt you.”

“Oh, Therese. Thank you. You do not know what that means to me…has anyone ever hurt you before?”

“Don’t ask me that,” she says with a frown, stroking my long hair, freed from it’s bindings. “It’s not important.” I frown again. “I’m glad I could help…you’ve been so kind already. You freed me, carried me, fed me, and trained me in your ways. You’ve been nothing but wonderful to me.” Her eyes graze gently over my face with a softness that I’m not expecting. It lights the silly embers in my lower belly again.

“It is the right thing to do,” I say. “You’re so rare and precious. To think someone was blindly hurting you…it’s terrible.” I bite my lip as a new surge of emotion rocks through me. She grips my face in her hands.

“You saved me from that,” she assures me. “You saved me from a life of nothing. You’ll teach me how to make a fire and build a tent and how to take care of myself.” I smile faintly, but a pang fills my heart, because she will leave me one day when she has all this wonderful knowledge and she will make a life for herself.

She is so young, so full of curiosity and goodness. The reason why I must continue to work to close those portals.

“Of course, darling,” I say a little stiffly, pulling away. “We must go to town now. I’m warm again and when I start walking I will be better, especially with more food.”

“Can you stand?”

“Will you help me? My legs…they don’t seem to want to be helpful today,” I murmur as I’m reticent to move a fraction more. Soreness and even a deep pain has settled into my thigh and shoulder. She offers her hands to me as she pounces up and pulls me to my feet. “Ah—oh!” She catches me as my leg gives out and eases me back down.

“Here, I’ll have to carry you,” she says and hoists me up again. 

“It’s too far. I can manage.”

“I’ll find the strength,” she replies steadily. I wrap my arms around her neck and press my forehead against her collarbone. The tunic is loose enough that I can feel the softness of her skin. I can only imagine what the rest of it feels like. “Here we go,” she says quite cheerily and starts walking toward the town. “Are you sure you are okay?”

“Death is off the table at the moment unless we can’t get more food,” I say. “My magic is still dangerously depleted and will kill me if it remains low, but we have a while. I’m merely weak and exhausted from yesterday. I am unable to properly heal myself.”

“Can I heal you?”

“No, not at the moment. It will take years of training before you will manage that—if you can. Not every natural magic is geared toward healing. Some are geared toward more offensive magics or other things.”

“I wish I could is all,” she says with a sigh. “You’re so light.”

“I am elvish,” I murmur. “Does it ever bother you?”

“No…I turn into a cat,” she says wryly.

“But you’re still partially human,” I remind her, but she shakes her head.

“Humans have never seen me as like them, because of that. I’m different—maybe not like an elf—but different enough to scare them.”

“I am sorry, Therese. Few people can handle different well,” I admit.

“And yet you do. Will the elves accept me?”

“I—I fear they will not.”

“Can you teach me enough before you have to go home?” she asks. Her lip trembles a little, but she hides her fear well.

Oh my darling, now you worry about the details.

“Therese, let me worry about my own people. I won’t leave you. I’ll help you until we find the right answers to your situation,” I reply. “Especially after you saving me…how could I ever abandon you?” Her cheeks flush.

“My parents did, because of my magic.”

“I am not your parents, Therese. I will not abandon you. We will make a plan and we will talk about it. I will not leave unless circumstances force us apart or you request it.”

“Thank you,” she says. “Sorry…sometimes my past talks to me.”

I chuckle.

“It’s okay. I think all of us have a past that talks to us. Some more than others.” 

The soft smile on her lips, brings a dimple to her cheek. My thoughts flutter again at how insanely beautiful she is. Really, she is an ethereal creature, truly charming. It nearly hurts my chest at how utterly magnificent she is.

Therese manages to keep walking until we reach the top of a hill and there are woods on the next tall hill and in the Valley is a small town with an even smaller convent at the entrance.

A sister stands in the garden she is tending, dressed in a blue apron, over a lighter blue dress with black beads that hang from her hips like chains.

“I am sorry to bother you sister, but my friend—she is an elf—bandits attacked us and hurt her. They stole all our things and we need help. Can you help us?” Therese asks in a shaky voice.

She has every right to be terrified. The sister could run to the village and tell what she has seen and we could be killed or chased out of town. It is no small thing to be an elf.

“Oh…of course, but come inside quickly. I don’t want anyone to see you,” she says and motions us toward her small cottage. Inside it’s dark and a heaviness more like the deepness of a forrest than a mere cottage sits upon us and I realize that she is a Water witch. I sigh and know Therese has somehow managed to find us another kindred spirit.

“Put her on my bed at once,” she says. “I’m Sister Gen. I should be able to heal her. You don’t mind if I use magic, do you? Elves don’t mind that sort of thing, do they?” I shake my head.

“Please…I would have used mine, but I’ve depleted all of it to escape,” I say and shiver, feeling sweat dapple my forehead. “I need something to eat and drink, please. Something small if you have it. I don’t want to eat your wares for winter.”

“Hush now…I’ve some bread,” she says and goes to fetch it, passing it out. “I’ll prepare some stew for an early lunch. You—what’s your name?”

“Therese,” Therese responds, turning around.

“Go pick three tomatoes, a handful of green beans, squash and zucchini. There’s also dried meat in the shed. Get a hunk of that.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Therese says. “Will you be okay, Ro?”

“Yes, darling,” I respond and she slips out the door, looking more concerned than I like to see. 

“She saved your life. This is infected.”

“Then, she has saved my life yet again,” I reply. “Can you help?”

“Yes…let me get a pumice to apply to it,” she says and rises to grab a pestle and motar to ground out the herbs she is mixing. I smell it from the bed and it all smells like positive plants to aid in healing and nothing sinister. 

“I must thank you. It’s not every day a human will help an elf.”

“It’s not every day that elves show up…let’s just say an elf helped my family once believe it or not,” she says. “And not all humans believe it is right what our kind does to your kind. It’s despicable. Hunting you down for a profit…for I don’t even know why. Some dark arcane magic. So I’ll consider my debt owed with you.”

“Vile indeed,” I respond. As most humans are blind to the effects of portals unless they are directly connected to them. They are affected by them, naturally, but few humans actually know of their existence or I’d imagine there would be more of an uproar over them.

She turns and approaches me.

“Can you pull down your breeches for me? Take them off and I will give you more clothes. These are tattered and filthy anyway,” she says. “Off with your shirt too.” I obey and find myself naked before her, but her glances are clinical as she applies the pumice to my thigh and shoulder. 

The flesh is red and angry around the wounds. She covers me up after she finds a heavy warm tunic to slide over me, but commands me to rest. I feel the affects of her gracious magic lulling me asleep and I obey.

Later, Therese returns bearing gifts from the garden and the shed. Sister Gen helps her prepare the stew and Sister Gen extracts more information about our journey.

Therese shares about the bandit attack and how I rescued her from gypsies.

“I owe her my life really,” Therese says, looking away from Sister Gen. 

“Sounds like you’ve repaid it,” she says, but Therese shakes her head.

“Oh no…she saved me from a terrible life. I saved her from single incidence. There’s a huge difference. I want to do what’s right.”

“Even if it puts you in danger? You could join a convent…”

“I’ve lived in a convent orphanage and yeah, you’re nice, but not all sisters are if you don’t mind me saying so. They didn’t teach me how to survive. They just kicked me out when I was of age.”

“I’m sorry we failed you, Therese,” she says and reaches out. “If you want to stay here…I can teach you as well. I promise I won’t hurt you.” But Therese shakes her head adamantly.

“No, you can’t teach me what she can. She’s going to teach me about my magic.”

“Ah…I did feel your magic, but it’s not like any I’ve ever felt.”

“I can turn into a cat.”

“That is odd,” she admits, eyebrows lifting. “I cannot teach about things related to that even though your magic calls to mine. You could have a life here, Therese. A nice one.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, but right now. I already have one.”

My sleepy mind smiles at that. She has a life with me and she doesn’t wish to leave. I thought surely she would want to leave after the bandit attack.

_Don’t be a fool. She doesn’t like you. She’s merely staying out of a debt of obligation. Not because of you._

When the stew is ready, Sister Gen wakes me up and helps me sit up. I’m still sweating, alternating between light chills and being hot, so I know I must have a slight fever. She patiently helps me eat as exhaustion makes it difficult to feed myself and I drop back into a troubled sleep.

Later, I wake up to a warm body pressing against mine as I hear moaning.

“Shhh, you’re having another bad dream,” Therese says, softly into my ear. I realize then that the moaning is coming from me. “Rest now. I’ve got you.” I cling to her tightly, feeling hot tears run down my cheeks.

“You don’t have to…” I moan against her.

“Enough. I want to,” she says fiercely.

“You’re not obligated to me. You’re free,” I whisper and she strokes my back in a gentle, comforting circle.

“I want to, Ro,” she says more firmly. “I want to be here and help you and hold you. It’s the right thing to do.”

_The right thing to do. She doesn’t care for you, see? You silly, silly woman._

I moan against her again and she pulls me closer and I hate the way my body yearns and even burns for the comfort she is giving. 

How many years has it been since you have had intimacy with anyone? Harge was so long ago, a romance gone dry and now you are desperate for some young piece of flesh. Surely, I am being corrupted by the taint. Perhaps I should have never bought Therese.


	5. The Woodland

The next few days are defined by sleep, eating, and getting help to preform basic tasks. Therese insists on taking care of me before Sister Gen. I don’t like being weak. As Scout and as it is my nature, I am fiercely independent.

Therese ignores my fussing and takes my insistence on doing everything by myself in stride, even when sadly I cannot. She watches over me.

“Leave me be. I can handle it,” I growl, but she ignores me. A steadying hand on my forearm as my legs shake dangerously. She releases me and I fall to the ground, feeling the uncomfortable tightness of my bladder squawk at me. “Therese! I wasn’t ready.”

“Then, get up,” she says, putting her hands on her hips. She looks down at me and I look to the outhouse still a seeming long distance off. I take a deep breath.

“I’m sorry, okay,” I whisper through gritted teeth. She hums and offers a hand.

“I’m only trying to help.”

“I know,” I say. “I hate this. I really hate this.” I can’t meet her eyes, cheeks beat red.

“I get it, Ro. I am a cat,” she says, teasing me. “I hate when people are too attached.”

“Am I too attached?” I ask her as she pulls me to my feet.

“You’re different. I can’t describe it, but I want to be around you. I’m the attached one,” she says, chuckling. “Does it bother you? You’re more independent than me. I didn’t realize it until you took sick.”

“No, it doesn’t,” I say and stroke her face. “I’ve been alone for a very, very long time. I’ve always been independent though, even as a child.”

Her smile brings dimples to her cheeks.

“I’ll be right back,” I say as we reach the outhouse.

When, I step out I wash my hands in a basin of water with soap. Then, I follow her back to the cottage. I sit by the fire with my leg propped up and she sits next to me, peeling potatoes. Her back pressed against my good leg for support.

“Imagining you as a child is fun,” she says with another soft smile. I chuckle at that.

“I was rather stubborn and energetic,” I reply, lighting the loaned pipe to sooth my crankiness. Therese rubs her cheek against my knee without thought. I stroke her hair and she makes a purring sound.

“You’re in a better mood,” she says.

“You somehow manage to draw it out of me,” I reply and she chuffs a laugh. “Can I braid your hair today?”

“Sure,” she says. “No one fixes my hair.” I smile.

“Perhaps I should start,” I reply. “It is getting longer.” I start to braid it with experienced fingers. Her hair is not as soft as elvish, but rather it is unruly, curls escaping free, giving her a charming look.

“I like when you touch my hair. Is that wrong?” she asks as she continues to peel the potatoes.

“It’s the cat in you. As long as you feel comfortable and I am comfortable what does it matter? You are different, Therese. We both know it.”

“Do you think I was born a cat or a human?” she asks out of the blue.

“What do you mean? You’ve told me you had parents.”

“I don’t remember being born. They were never particular to me either. What if they just found me and raised me? What if I was born a cat? Does that make me less human?”

“Hush,” I say and stroke her cheek. “You’re Therese Belivet. Cat and human equally. It does not matter how you were born, darling. It matters not to me.” I finish with her hair, and she carefully rises and sits on my thigh. The one that isn’t damaged and looks into my face.

“You’re the only person who ever saw me,” she says, stroking my long hair as she looks at it, before meeting my own eyes with her deep green ones. Her magic tickles my skin in an exhilarating way. I close my eyes as she gently strokes, occasionally grazing my cheek.

“Darling…no one has seen me for quite some time either,” I whisper. Thinking of my elvish clan and how I’ve become to them, an outsider in many senses of the word, because of my continued Scouting in a world that is rapidly changing from theirs. It has become easier and easier to live longer away from them, despite the danger than remain and be an outsider.

“Tell me more about your home,” she says. “Do you have family?” I nod, pausing as I watch her.

“I have a daughter. Korinda. I call her Rindy, but I’m the only one who does.”

“A daughter?” she asks, curiosity tilting her head. I smile and nod. “How old is she?”

“Forty years old,” I say thoughtfully. “I think…we don’t really keep count after awhile.”

“Oh…elves live a long time?” she asks. I smile and nod, closing my eyes and feeling the ache in my chest.

“We’re immortal. So unless we fall sick or are killed we will not die.”

“Never?”

“Yes…many of the older elves leave after their five hundredth year, but honestly, they’ve become much more rare.”

“How old are you?” she asks me. I take her hand, the one still playing with my hair and intertwine my long fingers with hers.

“I am very old. Two hundred and eleven,” I say quietly. I have never felt so foolish before a human before, but this quiet little creature has somehow made me feel like an ancient hag.

“I’m only nineteen. I must seem like a silly girl to you.” Therese suddenly sighs. “You have a husband I take it?” Her voice sounds so distant as she starts to pull away, but I catch her waist.

“Therese,” I say warmly. “You are not silly. You have an old soul and I enjoy you quite a lot. I’m not the type to handle silliness well. Rindy would tell you that. And as for Harge…we were married for a long time, but thirty years ago we broke it off. I had wanted a family and the pressures of society weighed upon me.”

“What changed?” she asks me curiously.

“Oh…I couldn’t bear staying within the woods any longer and doing nothing. Rindy was all grown up and Harge and I never really got along. We weren’t even living together at that point. The marriage had always been a farce and I was tired of living against the grain. So I became Scout and began to travel and it was the right decision for me. It brought me to you, didn’t it?’

Her eyes meet mine and I see the uncertainty there that wasn’t there before.

“What is it, Therese?”

“I—it’s silly,” she says and her cheeks flush. Her hand drops over mine. “I just…I’m young, you know and you’re so grand and elegant. It was stupid.” I swallow when she rises to her feet, cheeks red as tomatoes as she flees for the door. “Excuse me. I need some air.”

A few minutes later, Sister Gen enters the cottage.

“What did you do to that girl?” she mutters and looks over at me. I shake my head. “Did you fuss at her again? She’s upset.”

“I didn’t mean to upset her this time…it’s really better this way. She was asking about my age.”

“Oh, she didn’t know elves lived long lives?”

“I think she did, but the reality of my age…merely startled her.”

“She does have it bad for you, the poor girl.”

“What do you mean? Has it bad for me?”

“Surely, you’ve noticed. She fawns over you and she cares for you desperately.”

“I was merely kind to her that’s all. She’s rarely had kindness,” I reply stiffly. “She doesn’t honestly care for me. I am merely a benefactor.”

Gen snorts.

“You’re as blind as she is. That girl loves you. She adores the ground you walk on—no matter how stubborn and independent you are. She’d follow you to the ends of the earth if you’d let her.”

“Preposterous,” I say. “I’m an elf and I’m old. I’m much older than her. She’s realized it and whatever fantasies she had…well…now we both know how silly they are.”

“Love is rarely silly,” Sister Gen says with wisdom beyond her years. “What does age have to do with it? Especially when you live forever. Therese has much more to lose than you.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“She will age while you remain in this state forever,” she replies. “Do you know how that would affect her as she grows wrinkly and old.”

“It would never matter to me,” I reply and look away. I shut my eyes and imagine that beautifully seasoned woman and something ignites in me even stronger. “I could give her my immortality. For I’m not sure I could live without such a woman.”

“Now, that is true love,” Gen says to me. “Love that defies age.” I look up at her and shake my head again.

“Meddling creature. It’s impossible.”

“Only because you are stubborn,” Sister Gen snaps at me.

“First you wish to take her away from me and now you wish me to enter into a romantic relationship with her? One that will put her in constant danger.”

“I did not know the depth of your relationship when you both arrived. I would not offer now,” she admits, biting her lip. “And as for danger…does she not face the same daily because of what she is. Perhaps no one is chasing her heart, but they treat her like an animal from what little she has shared with me.”

“Enough of this madness…”

“You’re scared,” she dares me and I squeeze the bridge of my nose.

“I have a headache and I must rest, Sister Gen. Please. I am weak and tired and to make a decision of this gravity…you know that it is the wrong time. Listen to the current of your own magic.”

“Fine…let me get you to bed, but ponder what I’ve shared with you,” she says. “I’ve given you a glimpse of what Therese’s love could be with yours intertwined.”

“I thank you,” I murmur and settle down on the soft bed. I shut my eyes and sleep finds me entirely too quickly, but during this nap I dream of my dear Therese, her future self as she curls around me, skin as soft as silky paper and eyes a watery green. Her dimples hidden under the gentle wrinkles of her face and her wild magic still coursing and stronger, but aged…matured and ripe.

Our lips brush together as her delicate hands stroke my cheeks.

“I know it’s hard to take a risk, macushla,” she whispers. “Your life has been nothing but one risk after another with varying degrees of success and I seemed like the wildest gambit of them all. But even kittens mature, babe…and they mature quickly as cats do.” She nuzzles my cheek and chin, her wild hair rubbing against me as I moan softly.

“I do love you, Therese,” I whisper and her eyes dance with an inner mirth, flickering like fire in a cozy fireplace.

“You don’t have to tell me,” she says. “I’ve known for quite some time now.” The laughter is in her voice and it’s so rich and wonderful. Her hands trail down my spine as she nips at the curve of my jaw. “You’re so gorgeous.” I kiss her softly and feel the embers alight into fire as she lifts me easily despite her age and I bend down as our lips passionately clasp together.

My hands glide into her hair and she moans against me, warm tongue presses urgently against my lower lip before seeking entrance.

“Oh, my Therese,” I whisper. “My fire-hearted kitten.” She chuckles deeply against my throat, running wildfire down my veins, so different from my Therese and yet so totally her.

“Now, macushla. You can’t taste dessert first without the feast,” she teases and suddenly, a soft hand strokes down to my lower back and I blink my eyes open to familiar green eyes. I smile up at my Therese, still young and just as vibrant as her counterpart.

“Therese,” I breathe as if I’ve been away and her eyebrows lift.

“Dinner is ready,” she says, sliding down with my plate in her lap. I sit up with a grimace. “Is everything okay?”

“I had a pleasant dream,” I admit and reach up to stroke her face. “I want you to know…that it doesn’t bother me. None of it does. Your age, your magic, anything. You’re perfect in my eyes, Therese.” Her cheeks slightly color as she nuzzles my hand.

“I know,” she murmurs. “I—I’m sorry if I made you feel old. I like you the way you are too. You’re the best friend I’ve ever had and I don’t want to lose you.”

“I understand, darling.” 

***  
We spend a few more days with Sister Gen, before she fills my new pack with clothes, supplies, and everything to finish our journey. She even gave me the pipe and weed she’d loaned me before. Therese hugs her goodbye and Gen chuckles as she bounces around.

We take it slow, leaving the valley. Therese keeps up easily now that I’m favoring my leg with a walking stick. She sticks close by me, holding my arm occasionally to keep me stable on rougher ground. Her magic lends strength to mine. 

I stop early for lunch, careful to find a safe place. When we continue on, we stop early for the evening too, making sure we have a place to camp. The next day, I can traveling faster with Therese in cat form.

We arrive to the woods by the third day of hard travel. Immediately, I feel at home and much safer. Here I climb to safety, hide, and camp. The woods are thick, covering the horizon and there are lot’s of branches of the river to cross.

Therese walks beside me, looking around with excitement. Suddenly, she shoots off.

“Therese, be careful!” I call. “You’re not a cat. You can get lost.” She peeks around a tree, cheeks red. “It’s worse here, isn’t it?” She nods. “Let’s meditate here.”

She’s been doing better since we started. She can manage five minutes of sitting still now which is quite impressive for her attention span. She can even focus inward into the magic, but is still working on untangling a single thread. It’s so clumpy and wild.

Therese collapses into me with a happy smile.

“Are we almost there? This forrest is amazing. Do you like it here?”

“I love it here,” I murmur. “This is my home. I spent my life exploring these woods. That’s why they chose me as Scout. I’ve always had an explorer’s heart, daring to go where others would not tread. I suppose, as the eldress once warned me that it will get me in trouble.”

“But you aren’t scared…you’re not scared of anything,” she says as she balances on a fallen log nearby with her arms out to keep her balance. When she smiles at me, her face breaks out into dimples and her eyes light up. 

“I do, Therese,” I say quietly. “I fear for you. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you these days.”

“You’d go back to the way you were before you met me,” she says as if it’s obvious, but I stop along the makeshift path and she looks back at me with a strange look, eyebrows up.

I shake my head.

“I don’t know when I crossed that river, Therese, but I’m not sure I want to go back to a life without you,” I admit and her cheeks flush. She leaps off the log, runs, and hugs me tightly around the waist. Her head nestles against my shoulder.

“Would you be lonely without me?”

“I suppose, I’d be dreadfully lonely,” I say with a sigh, stroking her hair and she smiles at me. “You’ve filled a hole in my life I didn’t even know I had, Therese.” She squeezes me tightly before releasing me. Then, she’s prancing across fallen logs again and leaping rocks through small creaks. Playful as can be.

“You’re lighter here…happier here,” she says thoughtfully. “It’s like this place is magic…I can feel it.” She reaches out and touches the scarred flesh of an old tree. Her hand comes away snapping orange tendrils of her own magic. Her eyes wide as she looks up at the tree.

“What happened?” I ask curiously. She smiles at me.

“It talked to me,” she replies and leapt down. “She’s quite friendly. Here.” She touches me and the tree lore runs up my arm and the history the tree wished to share flashes before my eyes. I smile warmly.

“That’s good, Therese. That means you have tree lore. You’ll be able to light fires soon,” I reply and she bounces on the soles of her feet.

“Really?” she asks. I nod and stroke her cheek before she darts off and begins running again. So much energy, I chuckle and trot after her, but don’t try to keep up.

That evening, we eat what’s left of our supplies and she rests against my side in human form, feet curled up under her.

“Should I be a cat when I meet your people? Would that be better?”

“No, they might feel betrayed if they find out you are human later. We can bear grudges for a long time for betrayal.” She pauses.

“I’d never lie to you, Ro.”

“I know, darling. I trust you,” I murmur and wonder if she will be able to keep that promise. If she ever betrayed me, I truly think my heart would shatter. I swallow and she touches my face. I search her wide, glorious eyes in the fire light. “I treasure these moments with you.”

“Me too. I’ve never felt this way with anyone,” she replies thoughtfully, lips pursing. “No one was ever this kind to me inside the troop. I thought it was the way it was supposed to be.”

“But now we know that it’s not. I wish you had met the fire witch sooner or Sister Gen. They would have taken care of you too.”

“But I may not have left with you,” she says, kneading my thigh. I take her hand and her cheeks color at her behavior.

“Shh,” I say, puffing on my pipe. “You’re right sometimes our hardships bring us right where we need to be in the end. Strange, isn’t it?”

“Very…are there animagus elves?” she asks. I nod.

“We have two,” I reply. “One that becomes a hawk and another that becomes a dog. I am sure they will wish to meet you, no matter what the counsel decides our fate to be.”

“Oh,” Therese says, eyes wide. “I can’t wait to meet them. Someone like me. Were they born elves?”

“Yes, they have a history of animagi in their families. I’ve never heard of it spontaneously occurring before. That sort of thing is more among the animals. Which is why I’m curious about your wild magic. If it will be reflective of theirs or more powerful, because of whatever your lineage might be.”

“So I still could be a freak,” Therese says with a frown. Her contenance becomes dark as self-incrimination drills inside her being. I cradle her face in my hands.

“You are not a freak,” I whisper. “No more than I am. You are a being. You are my dear, dear friend, Therese.”

“I should become a cat and you should sleep,” she says with a yawn. “It’s late.”

“Yes…”

“You always answer my questions.”

“I always will,” I say. “If I can…believe it or not. I don’t know everything.” She smiles at me.

“I’d be surprised if you didn’t.”

Suddenly, she is a small bundle climbing out of her clothes. I fold them up beside us and her small thin body approaches me as I offer her some dried fish. She gladly gobbles it up before curling against me. We’re now familiar with how we like to sleep in the evenings and that is never apart.

My fingers stroke through her fur and I am quick to fall asleep. Tomorrow, she is human again. We walk into my home. I had not step foot in it for a year. Therese’s eyes goes wide when she sees it with brand new eyes.

This is an ancient part of the woods. A place where trees and elves have lived for centuries. It is archaic and each year weighs upon the soul like a drop of water, filling the lungs with a heavy pungent smell of wildlife. The trees are taller than any structure known to man, perhaps taller than some mountains in the area.

The trunks are wide enough to have been made into palaces, homes, and walkways. My people live both along the ground, but many of the eldest, richest, and most influential live among the trunk and canopy. 

We walk through the tall grasses to reach to the path to homes grown out of the trees. Light twinkling from magicked lanterns in this dark realm where little light graces passed the canopy.

“This is…this is glorious,” Therese whispers. 

“This is my home,” I reply. “Let’s go speak to the elders. I am sure the guards have already announced my arrival. You will be allowed to stay until they make a decision.”

We reach the foot bridge, a staircase carved from the thick flesh of the tree. Therese touches the tree and hums with a strange look as she absorbs the story of the tree. She smiles at me as we continue up the boards, worn slick with age. Therese holds the rail and trace the vines with vibrant colored flowers, some the size of her head.

The vines hold massive leaves and purple flowers of all shades. Therese takes a deep breath. She had been doing better with the walking, but the stairs are a bit much. People stop and look at us, but I must admit I do not know many of them well enough for either of us to approach the other.

“Why do they stare?” Therese asks me.

“Oh, you know…I’m well known, but we do not personally know each other. Every one knows what I look like for the most part. I am Scout and I have a reputation as one of the elves with the strongest affinity to nature.”

“Oh…well, I think you are also the prettiest.”

“Therese…” I mumble and she takes my hand. She hasn’t talked about my beauty for quite some time. “That is also a title I’ve born among my people. Carolina, the Beautiful.” I frown, swallowing down the hurt of my youth. 

“You don’t like that. It’s not a compliment, is it?”

“No, it’s chains binding,” I murmur. “Enough. I do not wish to think of painful things before I face the elders.”

“I’m sorry,” she whispers and I shake my head.

“Never,” I say. “I will share with you in private what those words mean to me, but I need to be strong for us.”

“I understand,” she replies. “I’m not sure if I can make it.”

“Become a cat and I will carry you.”

“How is your thigh? Should we rest?” she asks. I grimace for it is aching, but I will make it. “Maybe, I should stay human.”

“No, you will not be able to aid me in this, Therese and my strength is back. It is just aching,” I reply. She nods and quite suddenly she is an adolescent cat. I pack her clothing and hear some begin to whisper at what they’ve seen. There is no danger in what Therese has done. It can only help her.

She climbs up my arm and sits on the pack. I feel her peering over my shoulder with wide green eyes. We finish to the climb to the canopy where there is a wide balcony and palace. 

The elders sit waiting in thinly carved branch chairs. There are twelve of them, the oldest in our community. Seven females and five males dressed in robes, they are all of many colors as our people once combined with other elves nearly three generations ago for strength against the humans.

“Scout Lina,” Eldress Marbeth rises to her feet. “It is so good to see you.” I cross to her, for she was my dearest mentor and hug and kiss her cheek. “I see you’ve brought us a rarity…an animagus among the humans.”

“I could not leave her,” I admit and look among their stoic faces and see undoubtedly their reservation of opinion. It will indeed be a strange meeting, I imagine.


	6. The Counsel

“Shall you give us your report. You were were gone for much longer than we expected this time,” Eldress Marbeth says as she returns to her seat. Someone brings me a seat and I sit down too. “Are you injured?”

“Yes, a bandit attack,” I say. “I took an arrow to the thigh and shoulder. Therese, my companion, saved me.”

“Would she like to privacy to change into her human form?” Another female asks. She snaps her finger and another servant arrives. I pass her clothes along and Therese follows after the servant with her tail high, and peaks back at me curiously.

“I’ve discovered the evidence of a portal in Waterloo,” I say. “I did not come directly in contact with it but close. In each of the surrounding major towns outside of the woodlands there gatherings of cultists who are actively seeking elvish hearts to strengthen and open other portals. I have a map with their locations and size.” 

I pull out the maps that I have drawn by hand, passing it to another servant.

“I have also been working to create an inter-connective network of allies of various affinities. For I suspect that will be the only way that we may be able to close the portals. They are unnatural to this realm.”

“How did you meet this animagus and why have you brought her here?” Elder Harkoani asks. Therese walks to me and stands behind me. The warmth of her hand is present behind my shoulder on the chair.

“She found me after I had discovered the entrance of the portal. I found that I could not leave her. To find such talent among the humans is a rarity.”

“Is she even human?” Another woman asks, eyes clinical as she looks over Therese. “Come here, child.” Therese looks down to me and I nod. She crosses slowly. “What is your name?”

“Therese Belivet,” she replies in a shaky voice. The woman reaches up to take her face with both hands and Therese patiently waits for her to make her assessment. I notice the stiffness along her spine and legs. A bit of magic crackles in the air in a serious manner—light and fluid.

“Hm…she is quite powerful,” the woman responds. “It is unknown what her origins are.” Therese stands up and the woman waves her away. Therese returns to my side. The counsel continues to question me for the better part of the evening.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Therese shift from one foot to the other. Her own patience dwindling as the evening grows upon us. Finally, the counsel seems to recognize her discomfort and breaks up the meeting, so we can eat and rest.

“Come along to my home,” I say and take her hand.

“Your home?” She asks with a large yawn. I nod. It takes a good deal of walking and crossing through two of the massive trees, before we reach Rindy’s and my own family home. 

Therese’s eyes go wide as she steps into the lighted mansion. The floors are marbled and the rest is carved from the great tree. Rindy, dark-haired and as tall as me, crosses the foyer to give me a tight hug. She is one of the few people who still gets excited for my return home.

“Mother,” she breathes with a soft smile. “I feared for your safety. I am so glad you are finally home.” I grab her elbows and kiss her soundly on the cheek.

“My darling, Rindy,” I say, unable to contain my beaming smile. Even at this age, I can still see the precocious child she once was. She smiles and shakes her head, before spotting Therese.

“Ooh, you’ve brought a stray home. I’m Lady Lorinda,” she says with all the kindness I would expect from her. Her blue eyes warm, but clinical as she addresses the younger woman. 

“Oh do let her call you Rindy, dear. Therese is very important to me. I’ve accepted her as my apprentice and…” I look to Therese, who smiles widely at Rindy before hugging her tightly.

“I’ve heard so much about you!” Therese exclaims. Rindy looks at me, utterly shocked by the woman’s forwardness and I shrug with a delightful smile of my own.

“She’s quite charming,” I offer and Rindy pats her back. “She’s an animagus. So you might see her in cat form while she is here.”

“Well, call me Rindy then Therese. Come along, you two. I imagine you’re hungry. Then you can get properly cleaned up for the night and into your beds. You’ve had a very long day arriving and visiting with the counsel. They truly wait for no one.”

“No, they do not,” I say, taking Therese’s arm and lead her to the dining room where a home-cooked meal waits. There are fresh loaves of bread, roast beef, chicken, cheeses, eggs, sweet potatoes, veggies, quinoa, stuffed mushrooms and the list goes on. We won’t manage to eat it all today, but I’m sure Rindy and the house servants will make use of it tomorrow.

Therese eats more than her fair share which pleases me and I happily cart her off for a bath which she fusses about. Rindy joins me in my bedroom. I’ve since taken a small room, with a bed carved into the wall and shelves with books. She sits in one of the only chairs as I change into a robe.

“She’s quite young,” Rindy says, looking regal. She gets that from Harge. He always had a strong chin and wide shoulders. She makes it look imperious when she is grilling people for information. She’s very good at her own job which is a historian and scholar.

“Yes, she is. I found her and I couldn’t leave her. She was in a troop that was abusing her and wasting her talents.”

“Turning into a cat?”

“Yes, but she’s also a brilliant artist. If you could set out some paints for her and a canvas I’m sure she will work. She hasn’t had an opportunity in ever so long.”

“You like her, mother,” Rindy says in a low voice. I look toward her feeling my cheeks flush.

“I do,” I admit. “I cannot help it. I know it is silly and frightful. I’m much, much too old for her.”

“She’s a child,” Rindy says as gently as she can. I nod and frown, but then there is a tear dripping down my cheek. Rising to her feet, she crosses to me and touches it. “You never cry. What is it? This isn’t like you. You don’t fall in love.”

“I’ve had lovers. Your father—”

“But you don’t go and fall in love,” Rindy says steadily and she knows me too well. “I’m curious to get to know this woman who has stolen my mother’s heart.” She hugs me tightly. “I’m not judging you. I’m merely…shocked. That is all. She is quite beautiful and charming. She is so kind. Not many would hug either one of us with such exuberance on first meeting, let alone a young human. She isn’t a simple thing either.”

“She is complex, very complex,” I murmur. “I feel it may take a lifetime to fully understand her.” Rindy smiles at me.

“I’m glad you’re home,” she says. “It’s never a dull moment when you are around.” Therese pops into the room and stops dead, cheeks flash shockingly red.

“Oh! I’m sorry. I didn’t know where to go. I’m so used to being next to you,” she whispers, looking at her feet. I cross to her, pulling away from Rindy, and stroking her hair.

“You can stay where ever you like. You can sleep with me or you can find a bedroom nearby. These are all empty,” I say and stroke her hair. “Now, have Rindy brush your hair for you and I’ll go take a bath.”

“I can do it,” she says and I smile gently, but Rindy already has a brush. I nod.

“You will enjoy it better if she does it, darling. You know how you are,” I tease lightly before ducking away to get a bath. I know it will be another opportunity for Rindy to see just how unique a creature Therese truly is. The fine line between cat and human so thin, especially at night. 

The bath is divine and warm. I marvel at the feeling of the hot water, soothing battered and exhausted muscles. I nearly fall asleep, but Rindy wakes me with a gentle sing-song voice. I dress into a silk sleep dress, blue and she smiles at me.

“Therese is asleep. She turned into a kitten on me and fell asleep in my lap. She’s a lovely girl.”

“She stole my heart in that form,” I admit. “She found me in a back alley and charmed even my cold heart.” 

“Tsk…I know better than that. You’ve just been waiting for someone as special as her,” she admits. “Goodnight, mother.” She kisses my cheek before vanishing. 

I enter into my room, happy to be home, but even happier to be here with Therese. It doesn’t matter to me that it could be a temporary sojourn. It is in this moment that I know what true happiness is. Her small form is a tight ball on my pillow and I ease myself into bed, blowing out the candle nearby.

The room falls into darkness and Therese creeps to me, pressing tightly into her favorite spot. Sighing, I find I am much too tired to stay awake.

***  
I wake to a cold bed the next morning and aching feeling like I am missing something. Rising to my feet, I get dressed into one of my house dresses. This one is an even lighter shade of blue. The sleeves deep and impractical and the neckline dipping. I put on my pearls and jewelry, looking into my face and seeing the elf that I am. My hair is undone and long, drooping passed my shoulders.

What will Therese think when she sees me? Will she finally treat me differently?

Then, I shake my head and step out of the room. Therese will never betray me for a heart. I follow the sounds of talking and the smells of food. Rindy is in a similar elvish dress, but it is a classic silver with a long robe over it. She smiles at me and motions to the light breakfast nearby. Therese has already ransacked the dishes and is busy painting a brilliant sunrise on a beautiful canvas and the lovely trees of my home.

Therese turns in her seat when Rindy stops speaking. She’s in a long velvet black tunic that runs down to her feet as if it is a dress. Underneath are grey pants and soft leather shoes. It is a gorgeous thing on her as I feel my heart hitch at the very sight of her. Then, she is in my arms as if we have been parted. I love the feel of the velvet under my fingers as if she is a different form of cat. 

“This morning has been so lovely. Thank you! The food is amazing and Rindy has let me paint all morning.”

“All morning! How long have you been up?” I ask amused, touching her chin and her cheeks flush again as her green eyes dart away from mine.

“I’ve been a little too excited to sleep.”

“She might need a cat nap later. I sure will,” Rindy teases with a big yawn. “She was up way before the dawn. I found her painting away in this little room I set up for her. She was quite eager to begin as you can see.”

“Eager indeed. Simply incredible work, Therese,” I hum as I examine her painting. My arm tucks around her waist perfectly as if she is meant to be there.

“Oh…it’s the paint. It dries so quickly and it’s so pretty. And these brushes and the canvas. It’s the best I’ve ever touched.” I take her chin and lightly press my lips to her cheek and she flushes so hard. “I—I thank you so much, Ro. These are…beyond words.”

“If I had my way, you’d have paints and brushes like this every day,” I murmur warmly. She cuddles into me tighter, squeezing her eyes shut as if she is the happiest creature in the world and I imagine today she must feel that way.

“Thank you,” she whispers. “I wish I could stay forever, but you saw how the counsel looked at me. You can’t leave this place, Ro. Not for me. Not for anyone.” Her voice is serious and firm, surprising me.

I pull her gently away to get a fresh look into her green eyes. They are suddenly sad and grave.

“I will not leave you,” I assure her and her shoulders seem to relax, but her eyes fill with tears. “Hush, now, enjoy this moment for us. Enjoy the food, the paint, the view, and the wonderful company. Life is too brusque not to truly savor the rich flavors it has to offer.”

Her wide eyes blink into mine and she nods.

“Finish up your painting while I get something to eat, darling,” I murmur and she obeys, seemingly reticent to release me from her arms to return to her painting. I wonder at that as I gather a few things to eat and settle in the couch next to my daughter, patting her leg as she gives me a distracted smile.

I enjoy a languid morning with my girls, before I have to return to the counsel. Therese wants to come with me, but I insists her part is over for now unless they request her presence.

“Rindy will take you with her. You can go in whatever form you wish. Whatever makes you the most comfortable,” I say and I’m not surprised when she quickly turns into a adolescent cat and leaps on the window sill, refusing to look at me. “I will be back this evening and we will do something. I am sorry, Therese.”

Rindy touches my arm, distracting me.

“I’ll look after her, mother. She’ll be fine with me.”

Therese let’s out a low meow that shares perfectly how much looking after she thinks she requires. I place a piece of turkey next to her and leave her with my heart hurting at the idea of leaving her in this strange world. We have yet to be parted, but I know the time with Rindy and among my people will be good for her.

I do not understand though, why it feels like I am missing an important appendage when I step from the mansion. 

***

The meetings with the individual counsel members are terribly dry, occasionally they meet in groups of twos and threes with me. I do like having lunch with my old mentor, Eldress Marbeth. She smiles warmly at me and embraces me once again.

“I’ve missed you terribly,” she says. “The length of your travels always increases.”

“The depth of our troubles increase as well,” I say with a tired smile. 

“And you were injured this time.”

“If not for Therese I would surely be dead,” I admit.

“You should not leave again.”

“You know staying as the danger grows is not an option. They will one day grow desperate in their desire for power and come to the forrest. I am sure if you have experienced any missing scouts or guardsmen or anyone hunting or gathering in the woods that this is the reason they are missing.”

“And yet you bring a human into our midst.”

“Therese is not that sort of human.”

“How can we know what sort she is? Is not every human capable of such depravity?”

“Capable, perhaps, but would she no. I know this for a fact,” I say to her. “Even elves could succumb to such a fate if lingered within the realms of the portals too long.”

“And yet that is what you do? How do you know your perspective isn’t askew, bringing this foreign creature to our lands? Bringing your own thoughts here that our so different from what they once were. Every time you go out, you come back with even more outlandish and devilish plans. As if the world will bend around you.”

I frown.

“You think I am mad, then?”

“I think you are confused,” she says and touches my temple. “You use to be so clear and now I feel how knotted you’ve become.” I pull away and frown deeper.

“It’s not easy, but because the path is not easy and covered in brambles does not mean it is wrong the path.”

“The fact that you are the only one on it should tell you that it is the wrong path.”

“Therese is on it with me.”

“She is a child,” Eldress Marbeth snaps at me and I flinch away, putting my hands on my lap. “You cannot base your suppositions on her, Lina.”

“I know,” I say quietly at her softened tone. “I know my ways make no sense to you out of context, here, but outside these woodlands they do. The threat is growing.”

“I imagine it is, but it cannot be as bad as you say it is. You once said we had decades, then you said years, and now what? We have no time at all. You can’t have them all, Lina.”

“The threat is growing exponentially. I did not realize that at first and you know that,” I say, wounded at her nearsightedness. Her desire to make me an unreliable source. She is someone I trust. “If you will not protect yourselves then you know what I must do.”

“It is suicide,” she says. “You cannot be so fool-hearty as to think you can defeat this enemy by yourself. You are giving them your ripe and powerful heart on a platter. Think what atrocities will be committed in your name for such a supercilious endeavor.”

My shoulders drop farther and I shrink away from her.

“I’m not trying—”

“And yet everything that comes from your mouth is pretentious and hubristic.”

Something inside me crumbles even deeper as I nod.

“Forgive me. I only wish to protect this place and my people.”

“And yet you can defend and protect our legacy much better from here. You go herring off on these cavalier expeditions and one day it will be the end of you. You want to be a savior, a hero, but you will die a waste and a perversion to your people on your current track.”

Those final words break the dam within me.

“Please, excuse me for a just a moment,” I say and rise to my feet. Fleeing from her presence, and too embarrassed to let her see me turn emotional. Another sign to my weakening state among the humans. I flee to a private balcony and feel the tears fly freely.

A perversion to my people, a waste…nothing.

The words from someone I admire and look up too, a leader among my people. What have I become?

***  
After more dreadful meetings, I return home exhausted and beaten down by the gravity of my own fall. The moment I step through the door, a small weight hits me and arms wrap tightly around me.

“I missed you. Sorry, I got angry with you for leaving. Rindy talked to me about it and I was being silly,” comes the flurry of words and my arms tighten around her even tighter. I cling to her and the words die down as her own arms tighten around me as if she realizes something is wrong.

“Ro?” She whispers.

“Oh, I’m fine. It was just a rough day,” I whisper.

“Do we have to leave?”

“No, no nothing like that yet. It will be a little while before they make a decision of that magnitude. I will tell you about it over dinner, but I am a little tired now,” I admit as she pulls away.

“Are you hungry?” She asks, leading me down the stairs and into the dining room. Rindy is near the fireplace, reading books and with a familiar parchment and quill nearby. She settles me at the table and begins serving me.

After a few minutes, Rindy sets aside her work and joins me too. She frowns upon taking a closer look.

“The counsel was difficult I take it?”

“Very,” I say. “I hadn’t realized I lost all my allies.”

“All?” She asks, lifting her eyebrows. “I did not know that as well. What did you tell them?”

“That the danger has increased and if they are missing people in the woods that I am sure the elves are being hunted here.”

“And their response?”

“It is too hurtful to utter,” I say with a sniff. “Needless to say my opinion was not considered valid and I was told in no uncertain terms of my arrogance.”

“That.Is.Ridiculous,” Rindy says and her hands slap the wood table solidly. I jump not expecting such an outburst of emotion here of all places. “You are merely stating what you observed and they asked your opinion. You give it and they have the audacity to tell you that you are arrogant.”

“Rindy, please,” I say. “I cannot bear this tonight. Let us speak of it tomorrow. I just want to be with you and Therese.”

Therese slides out of her chair, puts her head on my lap. I stroke her hair, feeling my eyes fill again, but I refuse to cry again. 

“You should eat, mom,” Rindy says in a quiet voice. “You’ve travelled so hard. You need to eat.” It takes a force of will to eat. We end up by the fire. I’m surprised when Therese stays in human form and cuddles up against my leg again, head resting against my knee.

“Don’t you want to become a cat, Therese? You’re acting cuddly,” I say, stroking her hair. She looks up at me and shakes her head with a slow hesitant smile.

“You need me,” she says.

“I do?” I ask her. She nods again. “I know I said I’d do something special with you.”

“Why don’t you take her up to the garden balcony,” Rindy says thoughtfully from her books. 

“What about you?”

“We’ll spend the morning together tomorrow,” she says with a distracted smile.

“Can we?” Therese asks me. I stroke her hair from her eyes and nod. She springs up and offers her hands. I let her pull me up and lead her through my familiar house. “Did you always have this place?”

“I grew up in this house. It’s been in my family for generation. My parents live in the main part,” I say, keeping her tucked into my side. 

“Are your grandparents still alive?” She asks.

“Yes, they live on the other side. One set of them anyway. Do you want to know about my great grandparents too?” Her eyes get wide and I chuckle. “Oh Therese, what you don’t know about my people.”

“But I want to know,” she says, bouncing on her toes. “Really. This place. The trees tell me a lot, but I want to know from you. Not just Rindy, but you. You love your people and your home. I know it and I want to know why.”

My heart thumps in my chest at those words as we step out onto the wide balcony where the garden grows. Vines droop over head as they were trained too, trees curve elegantly, and flowers blossom in many colors. Water trickles under foot in special conduits to keep the balcony cool and too wet the flowers.

“The vast history of my people is not easily shared,” I whisper, “but the beauty can be caught in glances.” I lead her in a casual stroll around the largest garden. I know she wants to explore and dart about, but I’m surprised when she stays wrapped around my arm tightly, looking around with curiosity, but also quick to gaze back into my eyes.

We settle in a bench overlooking the woodlands and the sunset again. She curls up against me and I pull her legs onto my lap.

“This place…it’s so perfect…like you,” she whispers against my shoulder. I touch her chin.

“I don’t want to ruin this, Therese,” I reply, leading her eyes back to mine away from the sunset. Her skin glows a warm orange in the light and her eyes are so wide and innocent.

“You couldn’t ruin anything, Ro,” she replies our lips are inches apart. There’s a wild scent about her with a hint of spice. She leans forward impetuously and steals a kiss. Her eyes widen as she pulls back. “I’m sorry—” 

My lips crash into hers, preventing her from finishing her sentence. She grabs my face and my fingers slip through her hair. We melt deeper together and I dare to part her lips with a probing tongue.

“You taste…like…divine,” she manages in husky breathes. I chuckle against her silky skin.

“I taste like Shepherd’s pie,” I tease and her cheeks flush. “You taste like chicken…did you eat any vegetables, darling?” 

“Ro,” she whines and I return it with more gentle, passionate kisses. She nips at my lip and I groan, flashing my throat as she kisses down it, sending fire lapping through my veins.

“Darling…are you okay with this?”

“Okay with it? I haven’t been able to think clearly from the moment I first saw you,” she says, breath hot against my own skin. Lips slightly damp and her tongue lashing.

“Oh really?” I ask, titling my head and chuckling warmly.

“Ugh,” she groans. “What you do to me…you drive me mad, Ro. Absolutely mad. I’ve never…felt this way before. How can you even…like me like this?” I pull away, to take her face and give her a stern yet loving look, searching those insecure orbs.

“Now, listen to me,” I tell her. “I do not just choose anyone to love and care about. In fact, I don’t…but you…” My throat closes up quite suddenly with emotion. “You are amazing, Therese. You are special and dear and I don’t know what I would have done without you. You’ve changed the course of my life and that is not something I would wish undone for a moment.”

“I don’t understand how you can feel anything for me, Ro. I’m a freak.”

“You are beautiful and the kindest soul I know,” I say fiercely. I gently take her hand in mine and nuzzle her cheek. “Please, stay with me, darling. I absolutely adore you. Please tell me, you will have me.” She looks at me, takes my face again, before guiding my lips back to hers.


	7. Family

We stay on the balcony until the last of the light winks out over the horizon. Our tongues and lips lazily meeting over and over again until the stars have come out and the moon appears. Then, as she rests against me for another infinitely long moment, she falls asleep. I pick her up and carry her to our bed.

She wakes as I help take off her robe, sliding on a loose tunic in its place. She slips off her breeches and shirt from under the tunic, before collapsing into bed, limbs askew. I take that moment to change into my nightgown and when I turn she is watching me with hooded eyes—slowly blinking at me. Her cheeks light up.

“I’m sorry…you’re so beautiful—”

“You don’t have to apologize,” I say. “I’m not embarrassed by my body.” Her cheeks turn even rosier and I smile as I sink down next to her, stroking her arm. She purrs, scrunches up as if she is in her kitten form and buries her face into my thigh. I stroke her back and suddenly she is stretching and arching her back.

“That feels so good,” she groans and nuzzles me. I chuckle and tuck us under the covers as she throws her arm over me and places her head against my breast, looking at me sleepily but with a happy grin. Her fingers play against the thin fabric of my gown, warming the skin beneath. I don’t think I have ever craved such touch and more in the entirety of my life. Therese is such an incredibly wild force, stirring in me intense primal feelings of both comfort and longing.

“You make me so happy,” I whisper and she drags herself up to give me a chaste kiss against our tender lips.

“You look like a waterfall,” she says quite suddenly. I lift an eyebrow curious as to what she is thinking. Her cheeks turn rosy again. “The way your muscles move under your skin and your hair hangs down. You’re like a waterfall.”

“Ah.” I smile at her. “That’s sweet. You’re quite beautiful too.”

“No, I’m not,” Therese says with a scrunched nose. “No one has ever said I’m beautiful. Cute, but not beautiful.”

“Oh, you’re adorable, but you are definitely beautiful. Your delicate brown hair, bright green eyes. Those dimples.” I stroke them. “You’re glorious, divine, and the most incredible person I have ever met.”

“I think you’re special too,” she says, with a tiny unsure smile. I chuckle warmly, stroking her hair. she tilts her head into the palm of my hand, so I stroke my thumb against her cheek instead. She smiles and kisses my wrist.

“I like you…a lot,” she says. I grin. She squeezes me tightly around my waist. “I’m sorry you had such a rough day.”

“Oh darling, you’ve made it so much better,” I assure her. “Now, you don’t worry about the counsel. We’re in this together. I’d follow you anywhere. I swear it.”

“But…but what about Rindy?” she asks me in a tiny voice, eyebrows up. I feel a pang in my heart. I do love Rindy and my time apart from her has grown more challenging, but she’s not my little girl anymore. I let out a long sigh that leaves a deep ache and hole where that child use to reside.

“My dear kitten,” I say, stroking her face. “She’s an adult. She doesn’t need me anymore.”

“But she’s family,” she says with a pout. “I think she needs you.”

“She has made her own life here without me, I’m afraid,” I say with a sad smile and Therese nuzzles tighter into me. “A life that I am no longer apart of.”

“She adores you,” Therese whispers. “I don’t believe you…if you leave her it would crush you.” I let out a shaky sigh and look away. “Ro? If you can’t be honest with me, who can you be honest with?” Those innocent green eyes challenge me. They truly see me in a way no one else has.

“It’s been so long,” I say, voice still fluttering a bit around the edges after a painful silence. “This sort of intimacy has never come easily to me. I’m a hard and lonely woman, Therese. I am Scout.”

“I don’t know what that means, but you have me now, so you can’t be lonely anymore.”

I smile softly as I gaze back at her.

“I…I love Rindy. I will be sad when I leave, terribly sad, but I could not pick up the pieces of my life if I sent you away,” I say and she comes up for a another sweet kiss.

“Can we ask her to come?” Therese asks.

“I will not,” I say stiffening. “What if they catch her and take her heart, Therese? I could not bear it!” The very idea sends a deep chill through me. “I’d never forgive myself.”

“Don’t you think we should let her make that decision? You did say she was an adult.”

I grumble at having my words turned back upon me.

“Now, Therese…” My words metered and low… “This is my daughter we are talking about.”

“I don’t think she’s happy at the library,” she blurts suddenly. “It’s just that…she’s spent her life studying humans and these portals to help you, but at every which way they discourage her and prevent her from moving forward…they are not pleasant to her at the library. I don’t think she is happy here.”

“What? She never…she studies the portals? Not just in passing, but in it’s entirety as her choice study?” I demand. How could I not know this? Why would she keep this from me? But I know the answer to that…no, I know the answer all too well. “Damn that girl.”

“She sounds like someone else I know,” Therese teases.

“You’re awfully bold, kitten,” I return, seeing her cheeks flush in the darkness. “Aren’t you afraid of the consequences of telling me such things, of our budding relationship?”

“Why?” she asks innocently. “You like honesty over deception and I have always been honest with you about everything, Ro. Haven’t I?”

“Yes, my dear, and it’s one of the many reasons I adore you,” I breathe. “Subtly is wasted on me. I’d rather have the fight of it out in the open and return to things.”

“Rindy says her gift is different and that’s another reason they don’t listen to her at the library. I couldn’t understand why…if it’s because they don’t trust her or don’t like her or something else…but why would they not her like her gift? We can’t control what gift we have.”

“I thought we were long passed all of this.” I sigh to myself. When had Rindy stopped talking to me about these things? Perhaps when I started leaving… “I didn’t know, Therese.”

“What is it? What’s so bad about her gift?”

“It’s not well understood and it’s very powerful. She rarely uses it. She is the first in an era to have it. At least that we know of…Her talent is of the Shadows.”

“Shadows?”

“We don’t fully understand everything about it…for her, it means she can deepen shadows and pass through them to another realm. What is in those other realms…she has chosen not to tell anyone. When she was younger she would talk of strange things and she has always had unusual knowledge. She’d always come home, but when her talent led to struggles in the academy, with classmates, and professors…with her father and his family. She stopped speaking of it and began to hide it more and more. Even from me.”

“Oh, that’s so sad,” Therese murmurs. “She must feel so lonely.”

“I believe she does…yes. I think she likes you, Therese. Perhaps you can be a good friend to her.”

“I want to be. Do you think I can ask her to come with us then?”

“Yes, but it is her choice to come or not. In light of what you say, I fear perhaps this place is just as much not her home as it isn’t mine.” Therese reaches up to stroke a long strand of hair from my face.

“Maybe…I can be a part of your family?” she whispers. I take her face in my hands quite suddenly.

“Oh, Therese…whether you know it or not…you already are. When you chose me, you made a home for yourself in my heart,” I tell her. “Now, you need to rest. We both have had a long day.” I kiss the top of her head as she snuggles up against me.

I realize there is no place I’d rather be than this woman’s arms.

***

“Mother…” Rindy has found me on one of the balconies late in the morning. I do not have a meeting and Therese is painting in her special room quite happily not far away. I look up at her and lift an eyebrow. I thought I had left Rindy to chat with Therese.

“Yes, dear,” I say and motion for her to settle into the seat across from me. She easily slides into the chair with a grace far exceeding mine. Her affinity has always given her unnatural grace and strength though she hides the latter well in her carefully selected dresses.

“I know you wanted a quiet moment…”

“You are always welcome to disturb me.”

“There was a time when that wasn’t true,” Rindy challenges and I let out a long sigh.

“How the years apart do change the heart. I miss you. Even if we just breakfasted together…I miss having you around.” I offer her my hand uncharacteristically. Perhaps it is Therese rubbing off on me, but she looks at my hand before hesitantly taking it.

A jolt of something dark and deep laces up my veins, calling to the dark nights and shadows of the deepest glades. A low growl causes me to break contact with her long graceful fingers—momentarily hinting at long black talons and a glint of fangs. 

My eyes shoot up to hers.

“I am what I am, mother,” she says in a low careful voice.

“I did birth you,” I say. “I see you have grown stronger…far more intelligent than I could have ever dreamed…when did you start hiding from me?”

“When you left me here…when the world’s troubles began to overshadow mine,” she says with a tense shrug. “I didn’t want to be an added burden.” I reach across the gulf between us and touch her cheek. This time not shying away from the void within her as I stroke her cheek with my thumb. I see the monster under her skin again and I accept it as another faucet of my daughter.

“You are and never will be a burden to me, darling.”

A tear runs down her cheek.

“Therese invited me to join you…I told her you would never allow it.”

“Therese and I discussed it,” I assure her. “You should have told me before though instead of Therese sniffing it out.”

“What? You knew of my…particular affinity,” she says.

“Your choice of study…how the others treat you in my absence…I understand now why you jumped to my defense when my expertise was questioned. Yours is questioned daily and I can only imagine what they dare say of your sanity.”

She flinches away from me, standing and looking away.

“Am I insane, Mother? If anyone would know, it would be you. My own mother, right?”

I scoff and the cruel laughter that escapes me, stiffens her spine.

“I fear if you are insane it comes from me. I’m sorry, Rindy…for the pain I’ve caused you.” She spins to face me. Her contenance a shattered vase of emotions.

“Now, you listen to me. I chose this for myself. Not my affinity…but neither did you. I chose to study the portals and the cults…not just for you…but to understand my own affinity as well. What you don’t know is they are connected. I don’t just study them. I study the darkness, the void…the shadows, Mother.”

“What?” I demand, heart pounding in my chest at those words. “It cannot be. They can’t be connected.”

“Those portals lead to my realm,” she says and the way she says mine, sends a knife through my heart. I rise to my feet to stand beside her to look over the elven kingdom. 

“This…this is why I am inviting you to come with us…” I say. “Because like me, this place is no longer our home. But is the darkness really your home?” 

She looks at me and those dark eyes of hers are so murky and distant. I barely recognize the creature that resides in them. I take her cheeks in my hands.

“It can also be with me and Therese. We can be a family.” Her hand covers one of mine as she leans against it and shuts her eyes.

“I will always be apart of your family if you will have me, Mother, but you know I must make my own way too.” 

Bending down, I kiss her forehead.

“So you will come with us,” I say. My voice shaking as I am both hopeful and absolutely terrified. The fact that her affinity is somehow connected to those wicked portals. I fear for her heart, what power it must have, and if she is pure and can remain pure.

“Yes, if you will have me. Surely there must be some place…some good use for me in this world,” she says. “Perhaps I can help close those unnatural portals.”

“I hope so…will you be okay…around them?”

She chuckles and smiles at me.

“Oh Mother,” she says with a slyness to her voice. She glances toward me out of the corner of her eye as her gazes falls over me. “I’ve understood the darkness from the womb. You fear it as you should, but I was playing with corruption as an infant and envy as a child. Some of my best friends are the creatures you fear the most and yet…they are not the heart stealers and the murderers. No that wickedness is reserved for the true monsters.”

She walks toward the entry way, sparkling a bit of shadow that I did not see before. She turns and leans against the arch.

“It is your allies of this realm that you need to fear for. It’s easy to succumb to the throes of the creatures of my realm, but they exist for a reason.”

Then, she fades into darkness to let me ponder all she has spoken of. It is enough to send me collapsing into my seat. My daughter’s power swirling in eddies and tiny pools of darkness along the floor of the balcony.

***  
It is hard for me to coax Therese away from her paintings for a late lunch. I hate to pull her away from something she loves so dearly, but I also know how many meals she must have missed or was denied in her lifetime. Her waist thin even in the fabric of eleven material. 

“Ro,” she whines against me, pawing at my shoulder as I smile down at her. “I’m not hungry.” Her stomach growls in response.

“You, not hungry? I don’t believe it—not for an instant, darling,” I say into the top of her head as I kiss her. “It won’t take long and there are things to discuss with Rindy.” 

She acquiesces, letting me pull her along much more easily. This is much too important for me to give in on. I fear, she cannot miss too many meals, if any.

Rindy sits at the table with a thick manuscript, ink covered knuckles, and eating distractedly. When she hears us, she looks up and smiles warmly at us, before Therese sprints to her and hugs her, before plopping down next to her. 

I sit next to Therese, easily able to see my daughter over her head as she begins to not only fill her plate but mine. I realize, she’s already memorized some of my favorites.

My hand catches her elbow surprised and she looks up at me, brow furrowing.

“Did I do something wrong? I thought you liked Shepard’s pie?” she says quietly. 

“You already have guessed my favorites,” I say softly and she tilts her head, hearing some strain of emotion in my voice. She drops the serving utensils and hugs me tightly.

“Of course, Ro!” She says and pulls away to take my face. “You’re the most important person in my whole life. You deserve everything good and tasty and the best.”

“You’re going to spoil her, Therese,” Rindy says, leaning back and folding her arms, looking amused at me.

“We wouldn’t want that now, would we?” I say rather dryly. My heart flutters in my chest despite this.

“Rindy—” Therese starts and Rindy chuckles warmly.

“It’s not like any one has spoiled her in a long, long time.”

“You deserve it,” Therese says, returning to pile my plate with food. My hand slips to the small of her back and she arches into the touch.

“Well,” Rindy says, changing the topic. “I think it’s time we consider talking about our leaving and the next steps.” 

Therese stops with a forkful of savory roast beef in her mouth, looking at Rindy shocked.

“I say the sooner the better,” she continues with a smile. “Who needs the approval from the counsel.”

“We’re leaving so soon?” Therese asks thoughtfully, looking to me.

“I think we should consider all sides of it,” I say.

“You think I’m being hasty,” Rindy challenges me and I nod.

“I know you are impatient to have your own adventures out in the world, but they will still be there in a few days. I think you must keep in mind two things that may influence you. Firstly, Therese has not known a home like this in the entirety of her life and I would not wish to strip it from her so soon. I would also like her to meet the animagi that live here too. Perhaps they can help her with her affinity in a way that I cannot.”

Rindy deflates a little with a little nod.

“And the other reason?” She asks.

“I am still healing. Much more slowly than I would wish,” I admit. This makes her frown.

“You’ve not seen a healer I take it,” she demands and starts to rise, but I lift my hand.

“I haven’t had much time. I fear resting is what I need, but I will not have enough of it,” I admit. “I will go this afternoon, but it will fix little. I fear that my leg has been permanently damaged.”

“What?” Therese says, looking pained as she looks down at the thick clean bandaged wrapped around my leg. “After all of that?”

“I did not have the expertise or the strength to heal it properly,” I say. “And I was too proud to have you carry me to a healer. For that I must pay the consequences.”

“Ro,” Therese says and kneads my arm. The pain in her voice startles me.

“I am truly sorry if I have hurt your feelings. I do not…trust or like feeling vulnerable, but you…I should have let you take care of me longer, Therese. For that I’m sorry…not about my leg, but the hurt you now bear because of it.”

She hugs me tightly.

“It will just be weak right? Maybe a limp,” Therese asks, placing her hand over the bandage gently. I nod, feeling the tangled web of her affinity reach out to mine. I was beginning to like the mess and not looking forward to the day when it might be more organized.

“I will not be able to support as much weight or run or walk as far as I did before,” I say. “It was a silly thing for me to do to rush back like I did, but I was scared.”

“You scared, Mother?”

“Yes…I came very close to death and worse with the bandits who hurt me. If it wasn’t for Therese I would not have survived.”

“We will have to protect each other out there,” Rindy says in a low, dangerous voice.

“Another reason to take these few days to gather supplies and weapons. I need a new bow and quiver of arrows. You haven’t trained in a weapon yet have you?”

“I started to years ago. I do not need a weapon for I have several in my realm,” Rindy says, inviting me to take a glimpse into her world in a way she hadn’t before.

“Oh,” I say thinking over what she has told me and trying not to feel bitter or hurt over the information. I so wish she had shared more with me. I barely know my own daughter now. “What is your main weapon?”

“Dorsey, she’s a doubled-handed long sword,” Rindy says with a bloody-thirsty smile that surprises me. My daughter is not of the form for that sort of weapon. Like all elves she is tall and slender, built for speed and not strength. 

Then, the flash of long grey fingers with even longer talons as dark as night reflect in my mind’s eye. Those powerful fingers would connect to a hand large enough to wield such a sword. 

Who is this woman?

“Won’t you two eat?” Therese says, nearly oblivious to the slight tension between us. My daughter watching to see even my minute reactions to what she has said. I give her a trembling smile, to say that I am still trying and she nods, before returning her attention to her food and manuscript.

****  
The next day, Therese and I make are way to another elven household. This one is much higher in the trees than my family holdings, specifically because of the power that runs through their veins. The animagi of this family are well known through the elven communities.

Therese sits on my shoulder in kitten form, tail twitching excitedly. I can’t help but feel the twitch of my lips at the thrum of her gentle magic. It is a softer respite from the darkness of my own daughter, who is slowly allowing me to see hints of her true self and power.

We are invited into a wide galley with an open ceiling. Pillows are thrown about and the walls are painted in deep vivid colors, the floor precious marble covered in rugs. Nearly all the original wood has been covered or hidden for reasons beyond my knowledge.

The twin brothers I seek sit opposite of each other. Dark hair long, pale slender features, and easy looks pass between them.

“Danovan and Philemon,” I greet them with a nod. They do not rise as is customary, but instead deign me with a critical eye.

“Scout,” Danovan speaks, dark eyes perusing my shoulder. “So it is true. Another animagus walks among us. How strange…a cat of all things.” Therese makes a noise, reflecting just how she feels about that.

“There’s a partition just there if you wish to change into your other form and chat,” Philemon says with a wide smile. “You are a lucky I don’t feel like chasing cat today.”

I roll my eyes at the audacity of these young men before slipping Therese into the tiny changing area with her things.

She appears moments later and takes a shy seat next to me.

“You’re animagi?” she whispers. Quite suddenly, Danovan becomes a hawk and flies around the room, perching on a high branch carved from the wall, I did not notice before.

“We are,” Philemon says. “It grants us certain privileges as we are the last animagi in over one thousand years…until you that is.” He watches Therese curiously with droopy eyes. “Please…”

He reaches out his hand and Therese glances to me. Against my better judgement, I nod and she slowly takes his hand. Her orange knotted power snaps and crackles over their skin in a haphazardess way. His eyebrows raise.

“I fear there is not much we can teach you,” he says. “We have trained for centuries in the ancient ways of our people, but your power is different.”

“Different?” Therese asks. “How? Because I’m human?”

“No…I mean, yes you are a human, but you are cat too. It’s all knotted…you are perhaps the most powerful living animagus in existence,” Philemon speaks as if he does not believe his own words.

“Her power is in knots,” I say and he nods, waving at me.

“I see you’ve taught her some ways to untangle it, but I suggest you stop. Let nature take its course with this one. Those knots are probably what has protected her from the intensity of her power. Let her unwind it herself when she is ready. She will know.”

“You’re utterly useless,” I bite at him, but he gives me a lazy grin and a shrug.

“Well, Scout, you’ve proven the extent of you uselessness,” he says, stretching and a deep anger fills me as I move to slap him for his insolence, but Therese catches my wrist with feline speed, looking at me shocked.

“Ro,” she whispers hurt that I would even dare to do something like that and my cheeks blossom a crimson red I am unaccustomed too.

“I…thank you for your hospitality…” I mutter before getting up and fleeing. I briefly hear Philemon offer whatever he can to help Therese or even a home if she so wished it while the counsel allowed it to be rid of me. I wait on the balcony and momentarily fear that she will stay after my horrid display.

“Ro,” she says to my turned back. My shoulders relax. “That wasn’t like you…you don’t lose your temper.”

“Maybe I am corrupt,” I say and she stands next to me, leaning her elbows on the railing with her back against it to see my face.

“No, I don’t think so. I’d know…I can tell,” she says and takes my face. “You’ve got black edges, but everyone does…Rindy has tons, but that doesn’t make her corrupt.”

“What makes a person corrupt?” I ask her surprised by the turn of the conversation.

“The rot,” she says simply before pouncing away in a spritely matter. I shake my head and follow after her.


	8. When Things Go Wrong

Therese and I go together to receive the counsel’s decision. She stays in kitten form. I hope in a futile way that her innate cuteness might sway their final decision, but I know the truth.

They do not surprise. We stand together, Therese on my shoulder as the damning words come from their lips.

“We will not allow your animagus, Therese, to stay here. We ask that you take her from these woods immediately. Lead her from this place today. We assume you’ve made the arrangements,” one of the elders say. 

I nod.

“You will return immediately and cease your activities with these portals,” Eldress Marbeth says. I stiffen.

“I am Scout.”

“Then, you are no longer Scout,” she snaps and I feel like she has pierced my heart. “You will not leave the forrest until you are well again.”

“Well?” I ask her. 

“You are not well, my child,” she says, rising to her feet. “It’s time for you to come home and stay home. Do not continue chasing futility.”

“I will not be returning,” I say softly. “I—I cannot.” Eldress Marbeth walks to me and takes my face in her hands.

“You will die if you stay on this path.”

“Then, I die. At least, I will have lived believing in something.”

“I don’t even know you anymore…you were never this selfish.”

“I’m doing this for our home,” I reply feeling numb.

“You are blinded by your own corruption. If you leave this forrest. You will never be allowed back,” she says. I gasp.

“You’re banishing me?” I demand. “For what?”

“If you leave again, the corruption has surely taken you or will take you completely. You’ve become a danger to society as a whole.”

“For disagreeing with your decision?” I ask her and she slaps me hard. Therese hisses at her and I catch her and hold her to me before she can do anything else. 

“You will not speak again and bleed your corruption farther,” she snarls at me and I back up. “If you step out of the woods, we will know and you will never return. I’ve wasted my life on you.”

“Go,” says the Elder. “Before you cause further damage.” Two guards cross to me and I’m forced to leave the counsel and return home.

Rindy has our bags ready and I stand on the foyer looking once more at my home. Therese purrs against me, kneading her paws against me. Tears run down my cheeks as I hold her to me.

Suddenly, she’s human and holding me against her. 

“It’s okay,” she says. “You can come back. You don’t have to leave.” Rindy wraps a cloak around her shoulders. She doesn’t even look at her. “They will banish your mother forever if she leaves with me. You have to make her come back.”

“I can’t, Therese,” Rindy says. “The portals are unnatural. We have to find a way to close them and prevent more people from stealing power from my realm.”

“We have to stop the corruption and the evil before it comes to this place, kitten,” I say. “Even if I can never come back. It will be worth it for one reason.”

“For closing the portals?” She asks. “For rescuing your people?” I shake my head and take her head in my hands, drawing her closer.

“No, darling. You make it all worth it,” I say and kiss her. She shivers against me.

“You have to leave now,” says one of guards.

“Just a minute, Therese has to change,” I snap at them. Therese grabs the clothes Rindy hands her and that gives me a few more short moments to soak in the last moments of my home.

It’s too fast when Therese arrives in one of her black outfits. This one designed more for travel. Her midnight cloak looks glorious on her. 

Rindy hands me a bag and it’s lighter than what I am used to carrying. I look at her questioning.

“You shouldn’t carry as much with your injury,” she says. “Now, it’s time, Mother.” I nod and we leave my ancestral home.

We walk down the long bridge with the guards. They back off once we arrive to the bottom and leave the village, but trail at a distance. They camp away from us and the next day we reach the edge of the wood.

I stand at the border.

“Are you sure, Ro?” Therese asks me quietly. “You don’t have to do this. I’ve been alone before. I think I can learn to make a fire on my own.” I shake my head.

“If I leave you…my life won’t be worth living. I’ve never known anything like this before. I’ve never…you give me so much and I have so little to offer you now.” She jumps into my arms, wrapping hers around my neck, and kisses my lips.

“You have everything to offer me,” she says and takes my hand in hers. “We go together and maybe you won’t be so alone anymore.” She looks up at me and I feel so vulnerable and raw.

“I’m not Scout. I have nothing to offer you.”

“You are enough,” she promises me. “I’ve never had anything to offer you, but you’ve aways wanted me.”

“Kitten, it was you who chose me. Never the other way around,” I say and wrap my arm around her waist.

“Oh you two,” Rindy says and steps out into the clearing. “I know it’s a big step, Mother, but it’s time to make a decision.” 

Therese and I cross the boundary of the woods. I’ve done it so many times, but never with such finality. 

We walk for a few yards and when I turn back, the guards are already gone. I feel the magic of the forrest solidify, blocking me out like an invisible wall.

Then, Rindy let’s forth a gut wrenching scream that sends me into a panic. I run to her, but her arm strikes out against me and knocks me away with such strength it surprises me.

“No! No! Not here,” she yells, jerking violently, before she explodes. It’s like herself was merely a layer, shedding off as a dark creature rises from the ashes of my beautiful daughter. She’s taller than I am now in a strange dull black cloak.

“No, this can’t be happening,” she says in a strange voice—hood up—as she crouches down. A long grey half hooked tail slices through the air. Therese darts forward faster than I can try to stop her.

She’s going for the tail with a cat-like intensity as it whips again, but Rindy shifts and takes the brunt of her force and they hit the ground hard.

Her hood falls down, revealing grey skin, ink-black eyes, fangs, dark glossy hair, and strange pointed ears closer to the top of her head. Her features are stretched and slightly elongated. _Monster_ , my mind offers to me.

Therese stares down at her and what was Rindy looks at her. The dark-unnaturalness permeates around her stronger than ever. Nearly a portal in her very existence. Therese smiles and suddenly the pair are laughing at their own antics. 

The worry in Rindy’s eyes for a moment washes away into something akin to the girl I once knew.

“Therese,” I whisper. My fear getting the better of me. She looks up at me concerned.

“It’s Rindy,” she says with more confidence than anyone has a right to be.

“Can you at least step away from her a moment to let me process this?” I ask. My voice rises despite me trying to control my emotions. 

Rindy’s eyes grow dark as Therese squeezes her muscular arms and Rindy helps her off of her. Therese returns to my arms and a sense of security fills me—no matter how false it is.

I realize that the hood and cloak are not what they seem, but a part of a massive black wing structure attached to her back as Rindy rises to her feet. Her wings add more to her presence, making her seem more intimidating and taller.

Underneath those massive wings is a body dangerously thin, but chorded with muscles. She’s not dressed as a typical elven woman anymore, but rather shredded tight pants that stop just above her knees, belted just under jutting hip bones, and a breast band. Her ribs stick out over a muscular midriff and rail like legs that end in talons that grip the dirt. On her back sits the double-handed blade she referred to, tucked between her wings, and it seems to have a glow about it.

“I-I don’t know what happened,”she says, voice strange and different. Her light melodious voice changed to a lower sonorous one. “I can’t control it.”

“The woods,” I say, finally stepping forward, placing Therese behind me. “They helped you contain this power of yours.” I feel it emanating off her like a dark sucking flame. She bows her head, wrapping her wings back around her, and raising the hood-like structure again.

“I’m sorry.”

“You can’t control it and you didn’t know this would happen or you would have surely warned us. I wish you had told me…you’ve so many scars.”

Her eyes grow haunted, shining darkly under the hood.

“My realm is not an easy realm for a little girl to grow up in, but it made me stronger. I hope you will not regret bringing me, Mother.”

My back stiffens. Can this thing truly be my daughter? I walk to her, Therese takes my hand and I look down at her.

“What’s the matter?” she asks me. “Why are you afraid?”

“Elves fear what they do not know,” Rindy speaks for me.

“It’s her,” Therese says stubbornly.

“How can you be so sure? What if she was merely something else acting like my daughter?”

“Here. This is how,” Therese says, leading my hands to the long taloned fingers of this new Rindy. The moment all three of hands collide I feel the spirit of my daughter. Stronger, more powerful than any being I have ever met, but my daughter underneath all that strong darkness. 

She watches me with sad eyes, searching me and I nod.

“Forgive me,” I breathe and her demeanor changes. Her ears going flat against her skull.

“Mom?” Her voice trembles and I draw her to me in a motherly instinct that sweeps over me. She has not called me Mom for decades, nor have I heard her voice tremble like that since the death of her one friend. It had been a long slow sickness in which Rindy had sat by his bed every day as it swallowed him whole.

“Oh my darling,” I whisper and realize at this moment that she is my child. A child who has had to earn her way terribly in her other life. “What can I do?”

“Nothing…” she straightens suddenly. “You can’t save me.”

“But I wish I had known.”

“You were gone, being Scout,” she says in a bitter voice. I nod, pulling back.

“If I’d known—”

“You’d what? Not have been Scout?” she demands of me. She’s right. I don’t know if that would have changed my decision.

“I don’t know if that would have changed my decision, but perhaps I wouldn’t have left as often. Stayed gone for less time. Taken you with me? I don’t know.”

She looks over me as if she’s not quite sure if I’m telling the truth and I’m not sure if I am either. I had longed my entire life to be Scout, to earn that place and now…what did it gain me? Banishment? Losing my daughter?

“Well, I am not Scout now and I refuse to lose you or Therese ever again. Please…don’t leave me, even though I left you.”

She finally nods.

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t be the mother you needed me to be.”

“But you were the mother I aspired to be,” she says softly and a chill runs through me. “I’m fine.”

“Are you?” I ask. “You’re so thin.”

“Enough,” she says in a firm voice more accustomed to commanding soldiers than speaking to an elf. “Are we going to stand here all day? Let’s walk.”

“Where are we going now?” Therese asks me. I frown. I had made a plan, but it’s shaky at best.

“I have an old friend that might be able to provide more knowledge on the portals. Last I saw her, she was studying them. Perhaps you can combine your data?” I ask my daughter, who shrugs. “She doesn’t live far from here. A day’s travel…”

The others have no problem chasing after my flimsy lead. I do not tell them all the details. I can only hope that my old friend will still see me as a friend and that she is herself after living in such close proximity to a portal.

That evening we make camp and I don’t have to worry as much about an ambush with my daughter on hand. I begin to feel more relaxed around her.

“I’ll take all the watches. I can’t sleep at night. It’s when I have the most energy,” she says. “I’ll take to the sky, but I won’t ever be too far away.”

“When will you sleep?” I ask her.

“I don’t need as much sleep in this form,” she replies. Therese yawns.

“I’ll wake up in the night in my cat form and explore. I can’t sleep the night through either.”

“But the day you can,” Rindy teases as Therese did become a cat and spent quite a few hours nestled on my bag and neck resting. Rindy playfully messes with her hair as if she is a cat.

Therese bats at her hand with an unapologetic grin and Rindy smiles a fanged smile, looking happy. My heart squeezes with love for the both of them, even if I don’t always understand Rindy she is my daughter. 

And Therese. As if on cue, she looks up at me and leans into me, sliding an arm around my waist and touching my chin. I drop it slowly and the kiss that blooms between us is like a sweet wine.

I find my lip trembling, my cheeks stained pink, and my heart pounding. Never has another soul been able to rend me so completely.

“I-I…Therese,” The words stop in my throat. I’m not even sure what I want to say. But love floats in my mind, but it seems too soon in our relationship and I don’t want to terrify her with the depths of my feelings. For honestly, they terrify me. I have never loved anyone as deeply as I have her.

“It’s okay…” she says quietly. “We don’t need words. Not today.” Her fingers graze my cheeks, willing me to calm down and they flutter down to my sides where I realize I’ve grown stiff. “Just stay here with me. Don’t worry about the future.”

I shut my eyes and rest my forehead against hers, breathing in deeply. Her wild scent fills me and I crave nothing more than to consumer her, pulling her tight against me.

“You ask the impossible of me,” I say. “My whole life has been spent thinking in years…decades really opposed to moments.”

Her lips pull up into a small smile as she kisses the underside of my chin. Fingers roll circles over my stiff back, muscle by muscle relaxing slowly. 

“I want you,” I say, heatedly

“I want you too,” she replies, voice shaking a little and I nuzzle her cheek in a way she’s done to me and kiss her softly.

“I will never rush you. How are you? You’ve switched forms a lot today.”

“Hungry, but I’m managing it better than before. It doesn’t make me as tired,” she says. “But I’d still like to sleep early. You shouldn’t worry about me.” I snort.

“That’s like asking the clouds not to rain,” Rindy says. “Mother tends to worry for those she cares greatly for. I’m going to fly now.”

“Wait, you must eat,” I say to her suddenly. “At least take some jerky and return when the meat is prepared.” I had her a bag of jerky. She looks at it, taking a few pieces—an elven amount, but I shake my head. “More. You are much too thin.” This time I take out what I think she needs. “Come back to eat fresh food.”

“Yes, Mother,” she says quietly and flies away. I feed Therese too. She seems quite happy to be nearby. We practice her fire making skills and I am more than proud, when a small flame flickers to life on the dry wood.

“I did it,” she says and hugs me tightly. 

“I’m so proud of you,” I whisper. “You are such an amazing student.” She blushes and the flame blossoms. We quickly have to surround it and feed it as the wood excitedly gives itself up to this exaltation.

I teach her how to skin and cook the rabbits we caught earlier while we walked. Rindy returns for dinner, eating a whole rabbit with my encouragement, before flying off again as quickly as she’d come.

Then, Therese and I settle down. She turns into a kitten form and curls up in her favorite spot, meowing at me as if she has a lot to say and purring, tail twitching as I stroke her incredibly soft fur.

“What are you telling me, little kitten?” I ask her as she bats my finger playfully, nuzzling it in turn. I smile at the creature that has stolen my heart, scooping her up and raising her above me as I lay against my sleeping mat. “Oh my darling…” She blinks down at me with lovely green eyes and I pull her into a tiny hug before encouraging her to settle down again.

I would not trade these moments for anything.

***

We reach a larger city. One of the largest in the region along the main river. While Rindy is unusually tall, her wings appear so much like a cloak and hide her form so well—that much like me she can still pass for a human.

Therese follow us in human form as I lead them through the windy streets in an ancient part of town. It is not where the nobles live, but rather where the roads are dirt and the gutters roll with slime and filth.

The houses here are more like shacks, built one on top of the other in a shambling effort. My boots are already filthy as I shoo children thieves along, slipping coins into their pockets without them knowing the wiser.

As evening falls, we reach a particularly large and askant stack of buildings. I pause as Rindy catches my wrist.

“There’s something here.”

“My friend…she’s an air witch,” I try to tell her. “She’s quite powerful.”

“Yes…she is, but…I sense darkness.”

“A portal?”

“No, but definitely a strong taint. It’s infecting this neighborhood. A dense pocket of pure darkness infected.”

I swallow, feeling concern ripple through me. 

“She was studying portals and the taint…honestly, I haven’t seen her in fifteen years, at least. She was quite powerful the last I saw her. I can’t imagine how strong she is now.”

“I think we should tread carefully.”

“I can turn into a cat and check it out,” Therese says, lifting on her toes. “She won’t even know I’m there.”

“No,” I snap. Therese instantly deflates and I wish I could take back my sharp tone. She bites her lip and I haven’t seen that look for such a long time.

“Mother…she has a point. Don’t make contact. Go in check it out and come back. Tell us what you see and sense.”

“Sense?” Therese says, looking hopeful.

“With your magic,” Rindy says.

“Ro?” Therese turns to me. I take a deep breath.

“You are not my slave. I’m sorry…I’m just worried for your safety. I don’t know what’d I do with myself if I lost you.” She hugs me quickly.

“I’ll be fine. I won’t do anything.”

She quickly drops her human form, rubs up against me as I collect her clothes. She scampers off, leaping easily from ledge to ledge in her adolescent cat form until she is several stories up and able to enter through a crooked slack of wood, covering a window.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” I tell Rindy. She shrugs.

“It’s better than us barging in there and stirring up who knows what. At least this way we can at least try to maintain an element of surprise.”

There is sense to it, but I wonder if Therese will be safe. My heart squeezes at the thought of something terrible happening to her. I shouldn’t have let her do this. I grab Rindy’s strong arm, clutching hard.

“Mother, it will be okay. She will be okay,” Rindy says in a low voice, squeezing my shoulder. “You really do love her, don’t you?” I look up at her surprised.

“Love?” I ask her and she nods. 

“It’s obvious,” she replies and I shudder. “What are you so scared of?”

“I’ve never loved anyone,” I whisper. “Not like this. I love you because you’re my daughter, but I’ve never fallen in love.”

“Will you give up your immortality for her?” Rindy asks in a voice that trembles. I stiffen.

“Is that even possible?” I ask sharply.

“Yes.”

Suddenly, a blast of white magic erupts from every free space of the old shack. Without thinking, I charge toward the tattered door and fling myself hard against it. It doesn’t budge, like a stone, but Rindy picks me up and moves me out of the way before kicking it in as if it is nothing.

She charges up with her sword out and I’m on her heels, my bow in hand.

_What have I done?_

We reach the top floor and a wide, dank room where my former lover stands. Her brown hair has been cut to her shoulders, her face markedly older after a decade and half with wrinkles around her mouth, eyes, and forehead. She is not the young vibrant woman I once had a dalliance with. Instead she is replaced with a powerful bitter woman, anger radiating from her like a portal.

Her eyes flash with jealously when she sees me and slowly she raises a tiny black body in her hand—held by the scruff of her neck—is Therese.


	9. The Face-off

“What is this, Carolina?” Abby demands. Eyes are sharp and narrow. “You send a kitten of an animagus to what? Spy on me? Does she mean something to you?”

“If you hurt her,” I growl. Rindy raises her hand to warn me to be quiet, but it is too late. I take a step forward, but Abby raises Therese’s body. Little green eyes blink open slowly and she gives an unsure meow, before shaking her head.

“I will kill you if you hurt her.” It snarls out of me as I set the arrow directly to her head. “You know I won’t miss.” Slowly, she smiles in a terrible way that sends a chill down my spine.

“There is no reason to hurt a kitten,” Rindy says. “She’s merely a pet.” Therese growls at the implication. “You two are utterly hopeless.”

Abby throws Therese and a yell cuts through me as I shoot the arrow. Therese thuds dully against the wall, sliding down unconscious. A blast of magic shoots toward me. It diverts the arrow to her shoulder. She hisses and Rindy dashes forward.

The air magic hits me hard and throws me against the wall. Pain lances through my rib cage. The pressure of wind stops as Rindy hits her hard enough to knock her down.

Her blade rises over her head and I think surely Abby will die in this moment. My heart wrenches, because she had been my friend before the corruption took her.

Then, the sword slashes down against her shadow and strange creature blooms out of it, screaming in a strange high pitched noise that raises the hair on my body. It’s green in a shapely form of a woman with purple eyes and long hair. It slams into my daughter, screaming fiercely and I cover my ears with Abby.

They are shot against the wall which shatters weakly and both go tumbling out of the house. I growl and charge Abby after the noise dissipates, using my magic to divert the wind she throws at me before we collide. I slam my knee into her stomach as we roll to the ground and she grabs my throat.

My fists meet her rib cage repeatedly before she’s gasping and loosens her grip. Rolling over, I snarl and start hitting her harder.

“Don’t touch my Therese again,” I snarl fiercely. “What happened to you?” The corruption curls off of her like a stench. Her eyes are wild as she looks at me. She throws me off and rises unsteadily to a knee, facing me.

“You left me…you left me for some young prettier thing,” she says and I can hear the hurt under the anger. I pause and she is breathing hard, blood running down her cheek and a bruise blooming there too. 

“I left because it was just a fling. We both knew that.”

“You were my friend,” she hisss, “and you left.”

“Because it was…complicated.” I run my hand over my face. “It was never easy like our friendship.”

“Yes, it is and now…now, I should kill you,” she says, but she doesn’t sound sure. Her brows crumples as if she doesn’t believe her own words.

“And take my heart?” I demand of her.

“Yes,” she says and still looks confused as she doesn’t make a move. An animal growl, deeper than Therese’s erupts over us and then a black blur hits Abby. I prop myself up on an elbow and see a large panther growling at Abby.

“Therese! No. She’s waking from the corruption,” I say. “Please, Therese…don’t.”

“Mother,” Rindy says, arms crossed over her chest by the stairs. “She just tried to kill us.” I sigh.

“She’s still my friend and I believe it is the corruption that was guiding and inflating her emotions.” Therese looks down at Abby and lowers her head, another low growl building in her gut. Abby is shaking now, eyes wide with terror.

“I—I—what’s going on?” She asks in a voice that sounds more like my old friend. Her eyes are clearer and Therese sniffs her carefully before stepping away, blood trailing her claws and I see where they had punctured Abby’s shoulders. How deadly things could have become if Therese did not have such control of this new form. I feel a sigh escape me.

Therese walks over to me, coming up to my waist as she rubs against me like she does in her smaller feline form. She nearly knocks me over, but I bend down and wrap my arms around her neck instead.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” I whisper in her soft fur. I bury my face against her. A deep growl-purr erupts within her and I weakly collapse, hiding my face against her shoulder. 

I’d almost lost her. My dear, sweat kitten.

“Mom?” Rindy asks hesitantly.

I sniff and pull away, gathering myself.

“What? What happen to the monster?” I ask her. 

“Monster? Oh, that was Desire. I helped release her from the curse that bound her into the form of jealousy. Then, I sent her home.” She shrugs as if this is a normal, every day occurrence and maybe it is.

“Just like that?” I ask her. 

“Well, we fought,” she says with a shrug and a smile. “I had to knock some sense into her like you did your friend. Are you okay?”

“What? I’m fine,” I say annoyed. “Get Therese some food. She’s probably hungry. I’ll talk to Abby.” Rindy looks back at her after a roll of her eyes.

Abby sits on the floor, rubbing her face and looks haggard. Therese sits and yawns.

“Abby?”

“Well, I’m not going to steal your heart if that’s what you are worried about,” she mutters. “I’m sorry—I don’t know what happened. I mean…what—what was that thing?”

“That thing was a sentient creature,” Rindy says frustrated. “That was enslaved by a greedy, power hungry human. It wasn’t you, was it?”

Her eyes widen as she takes in Rindy.

“Abby, this is my daughter, Lorinda,” I say and her eyes widen. “I know you were studying the portal when I left, but did you join them?”

“What? No!” Abby says angrily. “What the hell? After everything we’ve been through you can ask me that?”

“15 years is a long time,” I say to her and bend down to sit next to her.

“I would never join them. I know what you are thinking too that I would because of you leaving me, but that’s ridiculous,” she says and rolls her eyes. “You hurt me, of course, but you were right. It took some time to see it and I miss you and I’m jealous of that little girl you’ve chosen over me, but I’m still your friend, asshole.” She hits my shoulder and I smile at her.

I wrap my arms around her.

“Thanks, Abby,” I whisper. Therese walks over and rubs against my shoulder and I laugh, patting her head.

“Jealous, kitten? That’s quite an impressive trick.” I hear her stomach growl. “Do you have any food, Abby? When she changes, it depletes her energy.”

“Not anything for a panther,” she says, lifting an eyebrow.

“Rindy?”

“I’ll take care of it.” She throws up her wing hood and leaves the house.

“What are you doing here?” Abby asks, titling her head.

“We’re trying to find a way to close the portals on this side of the realm,” I say to her and she nods. 

“But getting too close is harmful as you can see. I joined the cult to learn more and it took me in the end. Damn it.” Therese yawns again. “There’s a bed in here. I don’t know how I can help, but we both understand the danger of the portals and the corruption, especially now. I can’t believe I’m so weak.”

“We all are,” I say to her and squeeze her shoulder. My hand drops to Therese’s head and I walk with her to the proffered bed, Abby leading the way.

It’s low, but soft and cozy. Therese takes up most of it and I rest against her back. She let’s a deep sigh out as her stomach growls again. 

“Rindy will return soon,” I promise, stroking her side. “Have you learned anything new, Abby, since I left?” She crosses her arms and lifts an eyebrow. My cheeks color.

“No, of course not. In fifteen years, I obviously took up knitting and gave up on discovering more about the people who lured my family in and completely changed them,” she says. “Of course I did, Carolina.”

“Fine,” I grumble. “That’s not what I meant, but continue.” She let’s out a long breath of air.

“I’ve learned the major locations of all the portals,” she says quite pleased with herself. “They gave me all sorts of privileged information while I was under the effect of the jealousy demon.”

“Why?”

“I guess they weren’t expecting someone from what did you say? The other realm who actually understood what that thing was and be able to undo what they had done.”

“So these…portals?” I ask.

“There are three major ones, but the oldest one is in Waterloo. If we close that, I believe it is powering the rest or will further weaken them.”

“How do we close them?”

“Maybe your daughter will know?” Abby says. “I know it takes a heart to open one and more hearts to curse the demons within, but I’ve never heard of anyone closing a portal.”

“Well, we’re going to be the first,” I say grimly. “You know the price all too well if we don’t…” She nods.

“I lost everything….my home, my family, my money…they have me living in a shack doing their bidding. I’m a crazy old witch now.”

I grab her shoulder.

“You’re not a witch,” I say with a slow smile and she looks at me. Then, she shoves me.

“Still tender, you jerk as you lean on what I assume is your prettier and younger girlfriend.”

“You are still beautiful, Abby. That’s not why I left,” I assure her and she shakes her head, not hearing any of what I said.

“I know what I am,” she says.

“Age does not disqualify beauty,” I try. “I’ve seen beauty in the oldest of women.”

“But not your best friend, not your lover,” she says to me and let’s out a sigh. “We’re still friends, but I just need to process this…this new development. Rest well. I’ll come back shortly.” She rises to her feet and Rindy passes her, carrying a chunk of what looks like a leg from a pig. 

She drops it on the floor and Therese slowly drags herself up as if she doesn’t know what she wants more food or sleep. She eats slowly, but equally ravenously, taking deep bites.

“What was that all about?” Rindy asks and I wave my hand.

“The reason why elves and humans don’t mix very often,” I admit, rubbing my face and resting my other arm on my knee.

“But that’s not why you broke up. You wouldn’t break up over something as simple as the fact she was getting older.”

“No, of course not,” I admit, but I bite my lip. “The truth is that it was something that was bothering her. We were together for quite a while and I knew I wasn’t going to give her myself fully. I didn’t love her that way and I was sure that she didn’t love me that way either. We were friends…with certain…benefits.” My cheeks flush. “But that’s all we were. So I left…fearful that I would hurt her more by staying and preventing her from moving on to someone who could actually love her before she aged too much to be desirable to other humans.”

Therese looks up at me. Her eyes sad, but hooded, but much too tired to transform back to say anything to me.

“We can talk after you sleep,” I say and she let’s out a purr growl that still so new and so unlike any sound she’s made before. I have a feeling this is only the first of many surprises with the ever burgeoning powers of my dear kitten. She returns to her food.

“So this is where we are staying tonight?” Rindy asks, looking around at her dusty and aging surroundings. At first I think she is displeased by the level of poverty the place presents her as her elvish self has not left the forrest, but then I’m reminded again that my daughter has experienced much more than I ever wanted her to experience and my heart twists again. “What if other cultists show up?” No, she is thinking strategically.

“Therese needs to rest and then we can move. We also need to talk Abby into joining us.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Rindy says and collapses on the bed, arms going behind her head. I lift an eyebrow. She is not acting like the daughter I know. “What? Oh…” She drops her hands down. “It’s hard to act like a prim and proper scholar when I’m in my mercenary form.”

Her cheeks have darkened to warm crimson.

“You’re a mercenary?” I ask, heart aching. She let’s out a sigh.

“Mother, I’m still an accomplished scholar, even if my people fear the things I study. That hasn’t changed.”

“No, you just live another life as someone who gets paid to murder people.”

“It’s complicated and when you aren’t born with privilege it’s hard to get a leg up in the world. I had to do anything to survive.”

“But you could have chosen something different when you became of age,” I say to her. “You’re a scholar in this world, why not in that world too.”

“Ha, they don’t even have books in elvish script in the other realm or any language we speak. I was never taught how to read in that world or educated. My knowledge is useless over there. The only thing I’m good for is swinging a sword and I’m damn good at it too. But you wouldn’t know that, would you?”

“I cannot change what happened, Rindy,” I say with a sigh and Therese walks between us, giving out a plaintive growl-meow. I hadn’t realized how close I was standing to my daughter. Therese looks between us and let’s out a low moan.

Rindy nods as if she understands perfectly what Therese is saying to her.

“Let’s just sleep for a little bit. You can talk to your friend.” Therese butts her head against me and paws my pant leg. I bend down so we’re eye to eye.

Her eyes search mine before she butts her head against my chest and I squeeze her into a hug. Therese curls around her my daughter’s large form.

Letting out a sigh, I go to find Abby. She is wrapping her wounds with bandages. I sit down to help her and she let’s out an annoyed sigh.

“I’m fine.”

“I’m sorry things turned out this way and you were hurt,” I say. She shakes her head.

“It wasn’t your fault I was taken over by a jealousy demon.”

“I don’t think you should call them that. It will upset my daughter.”

“Fine,” she says and crosses her arms, “but only because your daughter is scary as fuck.”

“She isn’t scary,” I start, but think better of it. “She’s just…different.” I left an eyebrow. Abby snorts.

“So what happened to her. When we were together she was still an elf and a damn good scholar. When did she become…that?”

“My daughter has always had a propensity toward the void and the shadows, but I never knew how powerful she was. She kept it from me until she couldn’t anymore. When we left the woods, her Shadow form announced itself. Her form from the other realm and at the moment she has no control over it.”

“That’s…intense. How do you feel about that?” Abby asks me, searching my eyes. I shrug and look away.

“We’re…working on it. That’s not what I came to talk to you about.”

“You came to gather more information? Is that all I’m here for then?” She demands. I shake my head and it surprises me when an annoyed growl escapes me.

“It’s been a long day and I’m very tired, okay? I came here to ask my friend for help on how to close the portals and ask her help in closing them. I didn’t come here to get attacked and nearly killed. I just wanted to ask if you would come with us!”

Her eyes are exhausted and her hands have stopped working to cover her wounds. So I grab it roughly and continue the work she has stopped, noticed the slave she has put on the wounds.

“We’re visiting a healer on are next stop. She could look at these again and make sure they don’t get infected. She helped me when I took an arrow recently in thigh.”

“You are favoring it.”

“It was a bad wound,” I admit. “I had a rough journey back to my people.”

“And did you finally convince them to help you. Surely they are experiencing the affects of the hunt now? The cultist have already brought in twelve elves this years for the sacrifice.” I flinch away from her. “What is it?”

“They banished me forever,” I whisper and she gasps and grabs my shoulder.

“I am so sorry, honey,” she slips into her old way of talking to me and suddenly my friend holds me to her. “Damn this world…why is everyone ignoring this or falling headlong into this?”

“I fear that it won’t be long before I do too,” I say. “I fear that I will be tainted.”

“You’re not…I know what it is and your daughter…she obviously has the skills to help you recover from the curse.”

“Oh…but the taint isn’t related to the curse?”

“It is…”

“There were tainted men on the road…they hurt me and I’m sure they were just common bandits, not affiliated with the portals.”

“When people give into their Shadows, it allows the taint to enter in,” Abby says. “As long as you actively fight it all the Shadows can do is just add depth to who you are.”

“Thanks, Abby,” I breathe a sigh of relief.

“What are friends for?” She asks quietly.

“Are you coming with us then?” I ask her.

“I have to don’t I? If I am going to have vengeance for what they’ve done to my family and me…you’re my best shot to defeat the cultist.” I finish wrapping the bandage. “Thanks…thanks for saving me…you could have just killed me.”

“You’re much too valuable as a friend to kill,” I say to her and hug her again. For a moment she stiffens and then she relaxes against me, before pulling away.

“Fine, tell me about this kitten you’ve picked up,” she says with a sly smile. I return it.

“Oh no…she picked me,” I tell her and begin to tell her how I met Therese.

***

A hand strokes my face, waking me to the grey dawn that streaks through broken boards. Musty air hits my nostrils and then the wild scent that I’ve grown to love so much…I blink toward Therese’s green eyes and smile at her.

“Well, hello, kitten,” I purr in a sleepy voice and feel her shiver against me.

“Everyone is still asleep,” she whispers, “but I wanted to talk to you.” I prop my head on my hand and turn toward her. Our lips meet casually and deepen until she moans softly. “Talk. I want to talk,” she whines. I smile against her sweet lips.

“Then, we shall talk,” I say and stroke my hand through her soft locks of hair.

“How did I turn into a panther?” she squeaks. “I’ve never turned into a panther.” Her eyes are wide with fear now. “I almost killed your friend.”

“Shhh, darling,” I say and pull her flush against my body to comfort her, stroking her back and feeling my body betray me as it heats up under her touch. She’s naked under the thin blanket I realize. I bite my lip. “It’s okay, Therese. You didn’t.”

“The panther wanted too…I wanted to hurt her.” I pause.

“Is it because she hurt you?”

She shakes her head.

“No, I was so angry…that she was hurting you. That she was going to kill you and I couldn’t bear it. I had to do something.”

“Sometimes our feelings of protection can drive us to intense actions. You did hurt her, but not badly. She won’t die.”

“I could have,” she whispers and her voice trembles in a way that shakes me to my core. I kiss her forehead.

“Shh,” I whisper back. “You didn’t. We’ll work on it, Therese. If it scares you so much…we’ll find a way for you to feel more in control. It was the first time and you did marvelous. You did control yourself.”

“I was so hungry for the hunt,” she sobs against me, suddenly, and it shocks me. I cradle her tightly against me. “It was so scary. I’ve never wanted to hurt anyone that badly before. Not even when they hurt me.”

“You are good person, Therese. This new form…I’m sure it’s just expressing repressed emotions too. It’s okay to feel things like anger and hate and protective. Sometimes when we find our voice it can be scary…when we find our strength. You are quite powerful, but you do have a good hold on it and we will continue to work on it…together. Okay? Do you want to practice the meditation?”

She shakes her head.

“No,” she says in a voice so resigned. “It helps sometimes, but this helps more just hold me...please.” She nestles her face into my shoulder.

“How does it help, Therese?” I ask gently and confused by what she means. She sighs against me.

“It makes me feel safe…and—and it settles my thoughts better than the meditation. Everything is still messy inside, but when you just hold me at night and we’re calm. I can reach inside of me better and understand how it works and how it's all connected.”

“Oh,” I say. “Do you want to just quietly lay like this then?” She nods against me and I settle into my own magic and I feel her slowly calm down. The jangle of her nerves and her magic become evident in that moment. Then, it all settles down like it would in a meditative trance.

I can feel her breath even out against me and a fresh urgent warmth fills me again. I stifle a moan as her magic responds as she shifts against me.

“Ro?” She asks me quietly.

“I’m sorry…dear. You’re just so distracting. Maybe we should try this with your clothes on?” I offer, feeling my cheeks burn, and suddenly she giggles and I melt with her.

“I want you too,” she whispers under my ear. My heart takes off like a stampede of wild horses.

“Oh don’t play cat and mouse with me, my dear. My daughter and ex-girlfriend are in the room. You naughty thing,” I tease. “Enough.” She gives me a playful bat. “I’ll get your things.”

I get up and I’m very thankful Rindy and Abby are still soundly asleep. I let out a grateful sigh and find Therese’s things and she dresses under the covers before I happily wrap my arms around her again.

“Thanks, Ro,” she whispers. “You make everything better.”

“As do you, my kitten,” I reply and kiss her. 

“Where are we going next?” she wonders.

“I was thinking of asking that water witch to join us…what was her name again?”

“Sister Gen?”

“Oh right, that’s it. Yes, Gen,” I say and smile. “What do you think of that and then we head for Waterloo?”

“Where we met?”

“Yep, where you found me.”

“Why?”

“The oldest portal is there. The one that I was investigating. They must have hidden it very well in the past for me not to sense it or someone is getting sloppy.”

“Or you’re just getting better at finding portals and cultists?” Therese offers. I tweak her nose and wink at her. “Why are we getting, Gen?”

“She’s a healer. We might need someone with healing capabilities if we’re going to face cultists and those creatures in cursed form. Even in your panther form I fear it won’t be enough to keep us safe.”

“Don’t worry, Ro…we’ll find away,” she says in her eternally optimistic way. I pull her close and kiss her again. Relishing in this moment where our lives are not threatened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for you patience with me. I try to have these updates by the end of the week, but life has been so busy lately. I'm still enjoying the quest and seeing what will happen to our now growing band of warriors and mages. Thanks so much for your comments and encouragements. It's very helpful in keeping on point and remind me just to have fun and write!


	10. The Void

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please forgive me for taking so long. I'm afraid my mind has been all over the place. First with a mental writing block as in I had no idea what to write next. Then, I went on a work retreat and had a panic attack and this weekend I had a migraine or rather a stressed induced inflammation headache that's affecting some important nerve in my head.
> 
> Somewhere in all of that I stumbled onto the next bit of scene I wanted to write. I find myself falling into old habits and literally freaking out about how you guys are going to react to what I'm going to write next. It's totally silly. I mean I'm writing this just for my pure enjoyment but my mind keeps yelling at me--telling me you guys are going to get bored, and it won't be surprising enough, and I've got nothing new to add to the fandom and it's complete shit. I know it's a lie and it's my anxiety screaming at me, eating me up, so I know this isn't a lot, but it's fighting out of me and wants to be read. 
> 
> Now that I'm writing again hopefully I can word vomit some of this passion into my story in a positive way--so you may expect less fluffiness in the near future. Eek. Thanks for those of you who checked in on me and sorry for the literal word vomit above. Please enjoy.

“There’s no point for you to backtrack to the valley, is all I’m saying,” Abby mutters, crossing her arms. We’re all much more rested. Therese leans against me in her person form, eyeing Abby with a distrust that I’m unaccustomed to seeing on her face.

“Yes, yes, but I believe we need her,” I say and Rindy and Theresa are in agreement on the matter.

“I’m not saying we don’t, but you aren’t looking at the bigger picture,” she says, sighing with exasperation. “You’ve a multi-gifted team. A void and air mage. She and I can travel together to the valley and retrieve this Sister Gen and bring her back.”

“Um…that’s kind of dangerous,” Rindy says, scratching the back of her head. “My realm isn’t exactly friendly to humans, especially since they started binding the inhabitants and cursing them.”

“I have defense and you are…well—“ she waves her hand toward Rindy. “You. You can protect me.”

“Oh, I can? Have you ever been to my realm?” she demands annoyed.

“While I was under the spell of that creature…yes, I could see into her mind as she could see into mine. So yes, I know how dangerous it is,” she snaps, “That’s why we need to close these bloody portals as fast as we can, before these cultist create an army we won’t be able to defeat!”

Rindy let’s out a low growl and I lift my hand to silence their bickering. My daughter’s strange new eyes glance at me—a strange gold flecked with ebony—measuring me in a way she’s never had to do before.

“Could you do it, if you chose to?” I ask of Rindy. She pauses, obviously surprised by my words. Perhaps she was expecting a command, but I could no more command such a powerful being as my daughter as to ask the stars to fall from the sky.

“I’ve never done it before,” she admits much more calmly. “I don’t even know where to start.” She offers her large hands in confusion. “Keeping them safe yes, but…two people when I’ve not even done one.”

“You have two hands,” Abby says and suddenly places her hand within my daughter’s. It surprises me the size difference. I’ve held Abby’s hand and the memory is very clear. It’s only a little larger in palm than mine and shorter fingers, but everything is smaller to my daughter as if we are mere children to her form. “One for both of us…I’ll protect us from the entry and exit. I can even protect you if you wish.”

“It’s painful?” I ask my daughter, throat tightening. I feel Therese nuzzle against my shoulder and wrapping herself around my arm. Abby merely rolls her eyes as I draw her closer in my arms, grateful she is alive.

“Yes,” Rindy says stiffly. “I use to not be able to control it…and when I could…the pain of staying was worse than the pain of going. Sometimes, I still don’t have control.”

“Void magic is very powerful and unpredictable…about as unpredictable as that little wild magic cat you have,” Abby says and the sound that comes out Therese startles me. 

I lift a bemused eyebrow in her direction.

“Did you just hiss at our ally?” I ask her and am relieved to hear Abby chuckle. Therese’s cheeks flame red.

“Um…maybe,” she squeaks and Abby crosses to her, not touching her, but bending down enough to get a good look at her.

“I’m sorry,” Abby says and sounds like she truly means it. “I didn’t mean to hurt Carolina, Rindy, or you. Yes, I’m jealous, because she’s the happiest I’ve ever seen her and it’s with some little cutie like you, but I’m also so happy that my old friend is so happy and I’m glad that she has you. We don’t have to be friends, but can we put this curse business behind us?”

Therese measures her up carefully in a way I’ve never really seen her do. But these days are becoming stranger and strangers and the people I thought I knew are becoming utterly and wholly divergent. Then, she nods with a slow hesitant smile.

“Okay,” she whispers, almost shyly. “But if you ever try to hurt Ro again…I might have to kill you and I don’t want to do that.” Those words send the tiny hairs on my neck to point.

“I hope it never comes to that. Ro is a dear friend of mine,” she says and looks to me with a smile, before patting me on the shoulder. “Friends, Carolina?”

“Of course, darling,” I reply and offer a hand, before I pull her into a hug when she takes it. “Always.” I squeeze her tightly to me, but release her quickly. “I don’t like this business of you going to the void.”

“It will change you and this healer,” Rindy says grumpily.

“Not immediately and I’ve wards to protect us,” Abby says curtly. “Let’s get this over with, shall we? We all know it’s not ideal, but it’s time to quit messing around.”

She reaches for Rindy’s hand again. I can see my daughter’s hesitation and the flicker of fear in her eyes as she looks to her own taloned hand. Pain laces my heart at whatever she must be feeling.

Abby finishes the movement and takes her hand as if it is the most normal thing in the world and I find myself admiring Abby all the more.

“It will take a while, wait for us here as long as it takes. Probably no more than twelve hours, but most likely much less depends on the void and this healer of yours,” Rindy says with a tilt of her head.

“Sister Gen,” Therese supplies quickly. Rindy nods and a quiver of a smile reaches her lips if not her eyes.

“Sister Gen.” Her hand waves over a darkening shadow in a corner and it grows to allow the two women to step through. Purple and black magic surround them before they fade into the portal as if it is merely a dark tunnel, before it snaps shut behind them.

Therese tucks into my side as fear trickles down my spine as if it is ice water.

“What if I lose her?” I whisper.

“You won’t. She’ll come back. I know it,” Therese whispers. “I know it, Carol.” I look down at her, stroking her hair from her face and pulling her close for a kiss and truly embracing her for comfort. She supports me in ways I cannot explain.

**INTERLUDE** _Rindy_ A familiar pain washes over my lithe and powerful body both exquisite and torrid in the same breathe. A hand grips mine, anchoring me, but the force that roils through my muscles entangles and seduces me as I let out a roar and flare out my wings, reveling in the return home. 

“Shit,” Abby murmurs beside me in a tiny whisper. I look down at her small form and feel my hackles rise in cool amusement.

“I am what I am,” rumbles my raspy voice.

“That you are, by the stars and the moon, you’re something entirely…”

“What? Monstrous?” I demand, eyes narrowing as I think of all the ways I could dismember and ruin her frail sack of flesh. Shaking my head, I remind myself I’m not just an unthinking surviving mercenary here at the moment. I’m scholar, trying to help my mother close those damn portals that are trying beings far more dangerous and superior to the humans who are dabbling with a fire that will obliterate them and the worlds that I walk between.

“No…goddess, no…you’re—I don’t even know—“ I realize her voice is full of awe now. “Ethereal, divinity in skin.”

I huff a laugh that comes out more like a growl.

“Shut up, Abby,” I mutter, “and look around you. It’s the unseen power of this place that you are seeing, not me. It merely inhabits my flesh. If you dropped your wards and stayed it will take you too and make you wholly different. You’d probably become Desire or Ambition. I’m sure they fought over you quite fiercely sensing your disposition.”

“And what are you?” she asks, voice quivering as her eyes trail over a familiar horizon. Deep purple rocks, bleed crimson and burgundy power veins, over a rich indigo and ebony horizon. Leafless and gnarled trees stagger against the sky and ethereal citrine yellow lightening flashes amongst teal and peacock colored clouds. My home, more home than those woods and that library ever were. That library had been a prison.

“Tenacity perhaps,” I say in a teasing, yet grim voice, because sometimes I wonder if I’ve not something worse. If I’m not the inflexible the steel that snaps the neck of the innocent.

“You don’t believe that…” she says. “Do all creatures walk a such a fine line here in this realm.”

“Yes…there is no grey here. Merely black and black, power and force, passion and ardor. Death and renaissance. It’s complex…” I shake my head, feeling muddled between the power of my strength and the knowledge of my mind that often leave behind here. I scratch my face. “We better start moving…I’m…”

“Are you okay?”

“Befuddled.”

“I don’t think I understand…do you need a ward of protection?”

“No, no…I don’t think you can help. I’ve always kept the pair of me separate. It was…safer that way. The other me could be a soft scholar and this me could be…”

“What? I know you’re obviously not a saint here with a sword and body like that. It’s not like I’m going to run off and tell your mother either. We’re friends, but…I wouldn’t cross you even on a fair day.” She smiles at me and it surprises me.

“Why…how are you even managing this?”

She taps her head as if it is obvious.

“Jealousy…I mean, desire lived in my head for years. I think she even ran into you a few times. You were friends weren’t you…of a sort, as much as you can be friends with a mercenary. I’m still sorting out the memories…you even had a few…more erotic run-ins with her.”

Great. Not exactly what I wanted to shared with this strange mage woman my mother once had a relationship with. I huff again annoyed.

“Who is this person person before. The person you’re fighting?” she asks me. “The woman desire found so desirable?”

I swallow.

“She did? I mean—” I shake my head. “I’m a ruthless murderer.”

“Ruthless perhaps, but…a murderer? Not in this realm,” she speaks as she walks, ciphering complex memories of a creature she can’t even begin to understand. I have to carefully navigate the landscape for her.

“You said life is cyclical here or implied it, so your murders were for…survival. Tenacity, survival.”

“Desperation.”

“This place isn’t easy, Rindy.”

“Goddess, don’t even say that laughable name here,” I sneer.

“And what is your name then?”

“Ryva,” I say in a low voice that trembles with something deep and I feel her shiver. Her wards are weakening and we have to move fast unless we strike upon something that can sense her magic. There are countless beasties and beings who would gladly devour a life force and magic like hers. “We must quicken our pace. This is risky business not philosophy.”

She quiets and our pace finally picks up enough that I settle as we cross difficult terrain. I rarely let her go, only to cross the most difficult terrain before lifting or carrying her through the worst.

We’ve a bit of a trek to reach a Shadow Portal that will drop us where we want to go.


	11. What's Love Got to Do with It?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the encouragement. It was helpful just to get it out of my system. You guys are literally the best. I hope you enjoy the next chapter.
> 
> Oh and there's some sexy times at the end of this chapter, so if that isn't your cup of tea--once it switches back to Carol's point of view I suggest not reading on. This chapter is rated M and R for sexual content.

_Rindy_

We’re lucky to have made it through the Shadow Portal. Tingles of new and familiar magic had begun to run up and down my spine and the pain of transition ebbs away, with any hope of returning to my elven form. I knew Desire had a vendetta against humans and even if this one didn’t mean to be bound to her, she still despised humans and would love to get her hands on Abby and really show her what life is like in the Void.

Before, I had just managed to negotiate and battle her back into the shadows. I still remember the way she ran her finger down my torso with that silky grin, swearing she’d not forget this and exact the price from my flesh if she had too.

Shuddering, I didn’t want that, not the way she meant. We’d had a few flings sure, but I’d given up on having anything deeper with Desire. She ran shallow and wide, desiring everything and nothing at the same time. I had been just another conquest and back then, so had she been to me.

Abby squeezes my hand and pats my forearm and I look down at her.

“You can let go now,” she says quietly. “Thanks for…well, protecting me. It was a little more unsettling than I thought it would be.”

“We’re not going to be so lucky the next time and we’re planning on bringing some damn innocent sister—“

“Bringing this damn innocent sister where?” came a voice behind me. It’s like a waterfall, cleansing and pure. I’d never heard the like before. I turn my head, ducking deeper under the cloak of my wings and feeling my cheeks burn. “I know you’re something other. Come to my hut and reveal yourself. Unless that is you plan to throw me over your shoulder and abduct me?”

“N-no!” I stammer and look to Abby for help. She rolls her eyes at my apparent helplessness when it comes to socializing. Sure, I’m used to talking to my Mother and Therese is easy, but I grew up in a library and the other half of my life a mercenary. Part of me does just want to throw her over my shoulder and leave, goddess it would be easier that’s for sure.

“What my inelegant business partner means to say is that we are planning a dangerous journey for the betterment of mankind and need your help. We are merely politely asking you to come, nothing more. No throwing over the shoulders or forcing anyone to do anything against their will. I believe you met a friend of mine, Ro, the scout and Therese, the animagus?”

She nods as if not at all surprised we have something to do with them.

“Come in for tea,” Sister Gen commands, her short brown hair sparkles in the dying light of the sun, revealing hints of blond and red. Her skin is as pale as porcelain and her body sturdy from years of working in her garden and aiding a village as their healer. Her clothes are simply stitched, blue upon blue with those black beads like chains along her hip. “The Goddess welcomes you.”

Stepping inside the hut, I feel estranged again in this world. I’d never left the woods, yet I had explored the Void with a passion. I have never felt so vulnerable, anxious, and torn in this form before and it leaves me befuddled.

Sister Gen pours hot water into a tea pot and drops a packet of herbs into it to steep. Abby takes a seat without being offered, but I had already had problems shuffling through the door. 

Gen places the tea on the middle of the small wooden table, ignoring Abby for a moment and looking at me. My head brushes the low ceiling of her hovel and I duck a little. My hands, I try to hide them behind my wings and I feel so ugly and hideous before her.

“I don’t know what her problem is,” Abby mutters, waving her hand towards me. “She’s sensitive and a bit off-balanced between realms.”

Sister Gen looks back at the air mage trying to sort out what she is saying. I wonder how much she understands. She looks to me again.

“We don’t have to start at the beginning with me,” she says as if to explain something to me rather than the other way around. “I’ve already been here. You don’t have to be afraid of what I’ll think of you. I’ve already seen you. Do you think you can be brave enough to show me yourself?” Her words are suddenly gentle and Abby growing bored, serves herself some tea.

“I don’t…I guess, I don’t understand. I’ve studied the Void and Shadow Portals, but not other types of magic.”

“I’m a water witch as they say,” Sister Gen says. “I have an ability to heal and cleanse curses and have a fluidity with time. So, I’ve been here, in the past, and in the future. I know what you are going to ask me now and I know that our futures are intertwined.”

“I…I’m a monster.”

“Hardly,” Abby snorts. “She’s quite beautiful once you get used to her size and powerful presence.” I feel my cheeks flush at the compliment. No one has ever called me beautiful and meant it in this form.

“I’ve seen you in my dreams,” Sister Gen whispers, reaching out and taking my oversized hand from under my wing, stroking my palm, my long fingers, and bringing up my hand to rub a talon against her cheek.

It is a strange, yet comforting move. It’s like a dance that I’ve never done, but already know the steps to and it’s quite unsettling. I drop away my wings and let them hang against my back, revealing my bare flesh and battered clothes and all my fangs and talons.

Sister Gen examines me in the firelight of her shadowy hovel, holding my hand as if we are long lost friends…no perhaps more. Her power is like silk up the muscles of my arm. Where I am hard, she is soft. Where I am inflexible, she is fluid and bendable.

Fear washes over me as does fresh confusion as I step away and she releases my hand.

“It doesn’t have to be,” she whispers to me. “I won’t make it happen. It’s merely one branch in a thousand, but I dreamed it was quite pleasant. I enjoyed every moment I could steal with you.”

“I’m a monster,” I whisper again. She shakes her head.

“You’re a survivor. I’d like to know you. I’d like to know you apart from dreams.”

“I’m afraid we really don’t have time for that,” Abby says. “We are on a bit of a time schedule as we have less than 12 hours to return to our friends. While we can rest, we must really return to them.”

“I don’t know if you should come either,” I admit. “I know they sent me to retrieve you, but what we are fighting isn’t exactly safe for—“

“Innocent Sisters?” she inquires and I nod, blushing. “I didn’t always wear the robes. I chose to put them on when a sister offered me kindness and a new way of life. While I’ve not dabbled in your realm or the corrupt cultists I see and feel the damage they are doing, even in this tiny village. I will not stand by while elves are murdered, people are controlled against their will, and we play in things we hardly understand.”

I lift an eyebrow. Suddenly, longing to learn exactly what she means. She traces her lithe fingers up my forearm.

“Perhaps there will be time for that, but not now as your friend says,” she speaks as if she can read my mind and I drop my head feeling my cheeks flush again.

“I’m so confused,” I whisper.

“Rest for a bit in the bed. I need to pack up a few things,” Sister Gen says and grabs a satchel before leaving the hovel.

“Smooth moves,” Abby says with an evil grin. 

“Shut up…I didn’t expect her,” I say, realizing I’m staring at a door. “It’s not like it can happen.”

“She’s a water witch. She saw a way for it to happen and she likes you.”

“Impossible. It’s some kind of trick.”

“Because people can’t like you? What the hell did they do to you over in that realm anyway?” she says.

“It wasn’t just in the Void,” I say quietly. Remembering, how elves my own age had once only befriended me because of the status of my family until they realized how weird and different I was. “Only a mother could love a creature like me and I’m not even sure she does.”

“Oh shut up,” Abby snarls back at me. “Carolina has always adored you and still does. She spoke of you when we were together incessantly. And the way she looks at you, it isn’t fear and that damn cat…she loves you too.”

“She loves everyone,” I mutter.

“Not me.”

“She will. She’s just jealous,” I reply with a smirk and ease myself onto the bed, knowing it will shatter under my weight, but it is miraculously well made.

“You can’t be that heavy if you can fly,” Abby teases me.

“My bones aren’t completely dense, but they aren’t hollow like a birds either,” I admit to her. “I glide…I don’t fly.”

“Ah,” she says with a nod. “Are you really going to be okay?” Her voice softens and she stands up to offer me a tea cup. I take it and nod.

“It’s just disconcerting. It all happened so fast, becoming this thing here…and it’s muddling me up. I’m used to keeping my two identities separate and now I don’t know what I am. A scholar, a mercenary, a monster, or an elf.”

‘Why can’t you be all of them?”

“I hated the elf. She was weak.”

“Then maybe you can start anew here, be something different.” I nod, finishing the tea in one drink. “You need something stronger next time.”

“The blood of my mortal enemy,” I say dryly and her eyebrows rise to her hairline, before I smirk and she chuckles. 

“Go to sleep, you. I’ll wake you up in a bit.”

_Ro_

Having Therese in my arms, always settles my nerves. Her soft lips chase away the worst of the worries as her hands kneed into tense muscles. Her lips draw to my ear.

“Please, Ro,” she whimpers against me. “Please, I’m ready now. I can’t stop thinking about you.” As she sucks on my earlobe, the embers in my belly light again and a surge of tingles so passionate rush over me.

“Are you sure, my kitten? Are you sure you want an elf for a lover?” I ask her. She looks up at me with those beautiful verdant eyes and that dimple, which I stroke.

“Don’t you want me?” She returns.

“Of course…you’re my angel…flung out of space,” I say and kiss her as deeply as I can to assure her of my love for her. She pulls at my tunic, sliding it over my head, staring at me hungrily.

“Perhaps we should—“ I motion to the light. Elven bodies are different from humans, but they do age. I’ve aged in comparison to her in her spritely youth. I am all spindly bone and sinewy muscles and even a few wrinkles and child birth does change one’s body.

“No, I want to see you…all of you, Ro,” she says , reaching up and starts tracing hot kisses down my body. I moan at the feeling of such passion against me. Harge never kissed me like that, especially after the birth of Rindy. Elves like perfection and little else. With a tongue ready to devour me, she pushes up my breast band and suckles. I moan again louder and the sound surprises me. She’s somehow completely disheveled me.

“By the Roots,” I whimper, utterly shaken by a touch I haven’t received in a century. She pauses in her ministrations.

“Ro?” she asks. “Isn’t this…is it okay?”

I shudder feeling her warm breath against sensitive skin, everything feels alive and for once my world narrows down to just that feeling of hot breath against the ridges of my nipples.

“Oh my…don’t stop…please.” I bury my face into her neck, gripping her hard against me and she chuckles.

“Well, I can’t continue you if you hold me like that!” She giggles and my hands struggle to clasp her travel tunic and shirt, fingers shaking, breath uncontrolled and she has to help me remove her clothing. I’m completely baffled how I’ve gotten like this, but soon she is stripped naked below me, completely as she helps removes her pants and boots in one go with an eagerness I never imagined.

Her body is so sweet, smooth, svelte…I’ve never seen the like. Not like an elf at all. Not like Abby’s, purely her own, soft and ready for the taking. 

“I’ve never looked like that…” I whisper, tracing my hand from cheek, along her pert breast, rib cage and side. She shivers under my touch.

Then, I can’t help myself as I devour her, every inch as fast as I can from her head to her calescent, wet core, before coming up and burying myself into her neck and breathing in the wild scent that is my lover’s. Mine. My Kitten, our hair intermingling in a glorious halo.

It is too good to be true that she is mine and all mine. I feel her hands roll up my lean back, gripping skin as she pulls me down flush against her. Our bodies connect in passion, in all the right places.

“Will you take me, Ro?!” she whimpers. Suddenly, she sounds unsure of it I will do it. “Please…oh, I can’t stand it a moment longer. I’ve dreamt of this so often.”

“Have you?” I murmur bemused and chuckle against her warming flesh, nipping at her skin as she grip my back harder, pulling me harder against her, but I fight it, feeling her try to get traction against my leg still in my pants. All fear has now been banished in the radiance of her love. “Hold on…” I strip off my leather pants as she groans pitifully and I grin at her. Coming back down to tickle her inner thighs with sweet kisses.

“Oh Ro!” she squirms underneath me and I feel how wet she is, for me. Confidence surges through me as I remember the ways to pleasure a woman and nuzzle her core first with nose, teasing the folds, before sucking and licking my way to her ecstasy. She taste utterly and wholly her own, salty with a tang that drives me wild.

I support her as her body curves upward, eyes to the ceiling wide, dilated, and her mouth dropped open in a perfect o as she is shattered by the bliss of her orgasm.

Then, when her muscles relax, I ease her down carefully and draw myself up carefully against me as she whimpers at the touch, raw and vulnerable under me, tears squeezing from the corners of her eyes.

“Kitten?” I whisper, worried that I’ve hurt her in some way, perhaps rushed her. Should I have asked before—She places her hand against my chest, fingers grazing the hot skin of my collarbones.

“I’ve never had someone fuck me like that,” she says in uncouth language. It jars me out of the moment, but then it breaks over me. Therese has only been raped and hurt by humans. No one has ever made love to her. She doesn’t even know the concept and I weep for her suddenly and hard.

“Oh no, kitten…my dear kitten,” I whisper. “That wasn’t fucking…my sweet dear. We are making love.” I stroke her face and the tears away and she looks so confused as I draw her to me and hold her tight against me.

“Don’t you want me…to make love—“ she struggles over the concept. “—to you? Did I do something wrong?”

“Oh no, no…Therese, my dear Therese. You’ve done everything right. I can wait the rest of my life if it will help you realize that you don’t have to do anything for me to love you. Nothing changes in this moment. I love you, Kitten. I utterly adore you. Not for what you can offer me, not for the sex or your body, but you—not your magic—not anything, but your wonderfully sweet spirit. You totally have me and I am yours.”

Her breath comes in shuttering gasps against me and then she is crying harder. I wrap her up tightly in my arms. It makes me realize that there is something I can give her that would mean more than selfless love making, but it is a thought I must truly ponder and I tuck it away in this moment to comfort my sweet kitten.

“I don’t understand, Ro,” she mews against me. “Everyone always wants something. You can’t get something for nothing.” I start kissing her softly along her chin and down her neck, but her hands press against my chest.

“You’ve given me more than I could ever imagine. You’ve filled a space in my heart that had been cut so deep that I wasn’t ever sure it could be filled.”

“Really?” she whispers in awe. “I helped you?” I chuckle warmly against her.

“You’ve given me everything and I will spend the rest of my life caring and showing you my adoration for you.” She pulls me down on top of her, pulling me to the side so she can tuck herself against my body and I hold her as she sheds a few more tears which I kiss away and murmur sweet nothings into her ear to begin to balm the wounds of her soul.

If I ever find that traveling gypsy band again, I’m not sure I will be able to contain myself and not tear them limb from limb. My stiffened body slowly softens against the warmth of Therese as sleep pulls her down after the post of her orgasm. I stroke her hair and her face, keeping another arm tightly wound around her waist and bottom until she is partly on top of me.

Then, I pull a blanket over us and she mewls in protest.

“Ro…I can. I can make love to you,” she whispers with a large yawn, but I can tell she is spent, utterly exhausted by the emotions that have overwhelmed her. I tuck a finger under chin, drawing her sleepy eyes to mine as I smile down upon her.

“Oh yes, and you will, when you are ready, but not today, my sweet love,” I whisper and kiss her lips softly. “Tonight is for you and you alone.”


	12. In Over their Heads

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some violence, slow going and sorry it's not a lot, but it's coming bit by bit.

_Rindy_

Abby drags me awake. It seems like five minutes later and I groan. My body is sore from the long journey and the fast transitions into the Shadows. I’m used to staying a lot longer.

“What is wrong with you?” Abby says. I’m sure she actually concerned, but it’s come out all sharp and begrudging. I shoot her a look, rubbing an old battle wound on my shoulder. “Are you hurt?”

“No…just a bit drained.” I try to make it sound better than it is, because this next entrance is going to be hell and I know it. Gen is watching me with those dark orb eyes of hers, like wet ink, digging and dividing me into portions to dissect. 

I rise to my feet and try to stretch out my wings, but there isn’t enough room in her hovel.

“Should we go outside?” Abby says and I shake my head. There aren’t enough shadows, while there are plenty here.

“Let’s go. Be ready for trouble this time,” I tell them both and open a Shadow to the Void. I offer my hands to them, feeling unsettled in doing so. Abby takes my hand like she always does without thinking about it, but Gen crosses to me. Eyes never leaving mine as I feel a shutter run down my spine and warmth puddle into my stomach.

“It’s okay,” she assures me and takes my offered hand. Her fingers are longer than Abby’s, but it’s still small too small for a monster like me and her other hand traces up my forearm. “It’s okay. It doesn’t bother me. I promise,” she murmurs and I nod.

“It bothers me,” I grunt and pull them into Shadow.

The pain is worse this time. Rushing over and consuming me and over it, I hear Gen yell as a sharper pain plunges into the old familiar wound on my shoulder. A scent, powerful and lustful, sucks me down to my knees. Glaring up, I spot Desire. Her eyes are like fire, searing down into my soul, eating through me and ripping old ones wide open.

“Well, well, well,” she says, patting my cheek in her silkened voice. All I can see is her face, hear her voice, smell the deep rich scent of her. “That was a stupid thing for you to do. Bring your little pets into our realm when you’re weak, especially your little sister crush.” She laughs as she peers at Gen and my hackles rise.

For a moment, her distraction frees me to see Gen and Abby.

“What the hell?” Abby yells at me, dark beasties with spears circling her as her wards reflect in the reality of the void in strange airy symbols I’ve never seen before. There isn’t a lot of wind in this part of the void, but she’s strong enough it stirs in puffs and knocks the little boogers back a step, throwing them off guard. The other set of beasties have Gen by the arms and she looks at me worried. “Fight her, damn it!”

“She can’t,” Gen calls. “She’s drained. Goddess, why didn’t you tell us?”

“I thought we could make it. We didn’t have time—“ but Desire smacks me hard.

“Don’t talk to that little wench in front of me. If you only knew, the whore she was. Would you pander to her. Do you really think she is prettier than me?” Suddenly, my attention zones back into Desire. “What if I told her what you did for food in this realm? What if I told them the terrible deal you struck?”

She pulls Dorsey, my double-handed blade and companion, from my scabbard. The movement slices me open. The cost of earning that glorious blade had cost me soul in so many senses and she knows it, because she’d been the one who gave it to me so long ago. 

She looks at it, eyes lost in the past, of a time when we had fallen into passion and little else. Her eyes grow cold as does my heart at who she has become.

My mouth goes dry. This isn’t the Desire I knew and fell in and out of love with. No, jealousy hasn’t left her, but contaminated her. Pain laces through me as another spear digs into my side.

“Leave her alone!” screams Abby and a stronger wind slams the beastie that stabbed me against Desire, but with a casual fling of her hand he is crushed to the ground by Dorsey.

“Let’s go,” Desire says with a hungry and lewd grin in my direction. “This is going to be deliciously fun to spoil your little opportunity at something better. Did you really think you deserved it? After what you’ve done?”

“I—you know—I didn’t know—I really didn’t know—” I gasp, fresh guilt washing over me, reminding me of what I truly am. “I told you, I confided in you, that I didn’t have control of the outcome.”

“For a sword you sold your soul,” she sneers at me with an evil grin as she twirls Dorsey. “For a piece of bread you sold out every single soul in Void. For a fucking piece of bread.” Her voice drips with condemnation.

“What does she mean?” Abby demands as the beasties overcome her at last. Her power drained quickly without an easy source.

“Oh there will plenty of time for that, little mage,” Desire says and snaps her fingers.

Our surroundings pop and we’re in her opulent palace. It’s all purples, forest greens, and burgundies in velvet. Even her dungeon where I am bound to a soft lamb’s leather table, with heavier leather bindings cutting into my flesh. My face held in a vice against the sweet and salty smelling leather.

I’m stripped, pressed face-down and a whip cracks against my bare back as I growl, fighting the bindings, but Desire only looks at me cruelly amused.

“If you hurt her—“ I start as the whip strikes again, parting flesh.

“I intend to hurt all of you for what has happened to me,” she purrs. “Ripped from my homeland, enslaved, turned mindless, and contaminated. They fucking raped me. I’ll never be the same and what can stop them from doing it again.” Her face becomes pure hatred. “You’ve done this and I will take it from your flesh.” The whip cracks down again and I feel the hot trail of blood.

“I’m sorry,” I gasp. “I’m sorry. I already said it and I’ll say it again.”

“You.” _Snap._ “Are.” _Snap._ “Not.” _Snap._ “Forgiven.” Jerking, the pain cuts through me worse than any play we’ve ever done, because this isn’t play. This is the end and I do deserve it. I am a monster, after all. I gasp against the leather and three more whippings come down faster than I can catch my breath.

“Desire,” I breathe. But I’m not sure it will be enough. It will ever be enough, ever again. The truth is I had never forgiven myself and now this had happened to her. How could I dare ask for forgiveness, when I can never forgive myself for the terrible thing I had done.

***  
_Ro_

Sitting up, I’m drenched in cold sweat, ligaments tight as Therese groans and bats against me in human form. The darkness around me is oppressive and strangling. My breath comes sharp and hard.

“Something’s wrong.”

“What?” Therese asks, sitting up now, blanket falling away from her naked torso. 

“Something’s happening to my dear Rindy,” I tell her and look at her. “She’s in mortal danger.”

“H-how do you know?”

“I am a mother, am I not? I am nature, bound through the birth of my daughter. Perhaps you will understand one day,” I say as I stroke her face with a tender thumb and she looks up at me confused as if she had never dreamt of such a possibility for herself. My heart aches at the thought, but I set it aside like I’ve had to do with so many things of late. “Rindy is in danger and there is nothing I can do.” It tears out of me like a wounded cry.

Therese rises to her knees and grips my face.

“We’ll find away to get them out. We just have to find a way in,” she says desperately, but focused. “How do we get in, Ro? How do we go to the dark realm?”

My mind races and stops on a terrible thought.

“A portal…” I say and look up at her in horror. She nods, reaching for her clothing and mine. She’s putting on her pants. “You are not going to that terrible place,” I snap without thought. She stops, pants hanging loosely on her thin hips, bones sticking out but hips covered with delicious muscle and flesh that I’ve now tasted and long to taste again, despite the urgency of the situation.

She glares at me and it startles me. Eyebrows down, she crawls up my body like the wild cat she also is and grips my face again. This time her fingers almost like claws to my jaw. Her green eyes sear into mine.

“Like hell you are leaving me. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me and I’m never letting anything take you from me,” she says and kisses me hard and passionately. She pulls away from me, leaving me unbalanced. I feel as if something has snapped between us. She throws my clothes at me. “Now, get your clothes on, Ro. Rindy’s in danger and we’re going to get her. She’s part mine now too, you know.” She meets my eyes again, shining fierce in the night of the room, reflecting like an animal’s.

“Yours?”

“My friend,” she says quietly and fiercely, but it feels like more than that. No, Rindy is just as much hers now and mine, because of what is between us. It’s not something small and trivial, no matter how fresh this love is between us. “I don’t have a lot of them and by the gods, I won’t lose a one of them to anyone or anything.”

Family. She doesn’t have family, but Rindy and I and that cuts through me too deeply for words.


	13. Portal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A short chapter to tide you over...planning to write more this evening so no worries.

Ro  
Leading Therese through the winding streets of this larger town, it reminds me of that moment we met. The feeling of Waterloo’s portal, the presence of the taint, and bending down to look at a peculiar kitten

She’s already grown since we left Waterloo. Her magic has begun to take shape and establish itself with training. Love has made her confident in her stride. Her clothes make her seem older and when she looks at me, all that’s present is intensity and desire. She is a woman on a mission.

The taint is faint and I follow it carefully. A copper hint here and there that begins to form those deadly vines. Therese goes to touch one and I grab her hand quickly.

“No, my darling,” I say to her. “You’ll collapse the connection.” She looks at me confused. “The day I met you…I collapsed the line. Remember I was covered in dust? I had gone into an abandoned building and touched the heart of the where the portal had been. This is how they protect themselves.”

“Don’t people notice these?” she asks me.

“If they do, it’s grown up so slowly they hardly notice. And it’s beautiful in it’s own way. While we are following the taint, it will collapse. If someone seeks the taint or gathers it, it will spread.” She nods and we continue follow the vines and the growing coppery expression of the magic.

It leads us into a nicer part of town. A mansion guarded by ivory and taint filled walls. I look up at the height in which we must climb.

“Ro,” Therese whispers into my ear on tiptoes. “You’re not scared of heights are you?”

“Of course not,” I sniff. “I was born in a tree, a very tall one.” I stare up at the taint covered wall. “It’s the taint.”

“Climb on my back. I can see it and I’m already touched by it,” she says. “More than you.” She offers her hands. “This close to an open portal, we don’t want them to know how close an elf is. They’ll seek your heart in an instant.”

I enter into her arms and let her hold me for a moment. It’s a wonder to be treasured by such a rare and precious creature. She wraps her arms around my neck to bring down for a gentle, long kiss. I don’t want to release her, but Rindy needs me. She pulls away and meets my eyes, searching them.

“We’ll find her,” she says. “We’ll save them. Now, up on my back, Ro.” She turns in my arm and though she is smaller than me. She easily picks me up and we arrange ourselves awkwardly for a moment. I try to find a comfortable position for the pair of us. Thankfully, I am light and I catch a wicked smile on her face.

“What?”

“This would be so much better if you were naked,” she teases me and I huff.

“Let’s get on with this,” I say and give her a quick peck on the cheek. She starts crawling up the wall with an innate talent of a cat. I can feel the muscles under her clothing flex as she adjust her grip between the taint. It curious to watch it wrap around her hands and wrist, dancing with her own magic.

I shut my eyes, relaxing into her magic and offering what protection I can.

“Careful,” she whispers. “Love, it’s strong.” 

“Let me protect you,” I respond and she reaches the top of the wall, pulling me up.

“Let me protect you,” she replies, crouching and have to wrap my legs around her. The small mansion before us is old, but glorious in it’s own way. I have rarely seen such a well maintained lady from the last era. The lights off except for the top floor balcony. There are a handful of guards, but Therese doesn’t seem worried.

She starts to move quickly down the wall, keeping low until she reaches a tree. The tree is safe from the taint, so once she is in it with a quick light-footed leap, she let’s me down into it.

I follow her through the shadows upward and toward the roof of the building. Both us are silent. Then, she becomes a cat on thicker branch. I catch her clothing and she runs across the branch and leaps to the roof without a sound. Quickly, she forms into a human as I run across the branch. I leap and she catches me in her arms.

She kisses me and fishes for her clothing. I have to her her put them on, since she still refuses to let me touch foot and risk being recognized by the taint. Then, she leads me to the balcony and we drop down.

Next to the door, there is a window with a strange design. Peering in, there is a group of ten men and women in black cloaks and strange masks that grin. The portal is wide and purple, flowing a strange counterclockwise pattern with a deeper purple inner. 

The taint pours out of it, but most of it is centralized around a horse headed minotaur stands to the side in grotesque musculature. 

I draw my bow and arrow, placing my lips next to her ear. “Make for the tunnel. That its he only way. I’ll gather your things.”

“It’s too dangerous.”

“Trust me,” I say. I feel her growing thicker under me. She’s not becoming a cat. I strip off her clothing as she charges through the door. I start firing, let nature sing through them. Bright burst of lights go off and Therese clears a path bowling through the men and women, but the great pride beast stands between her and the portal.

I let my arrows sing toward it. He turns his terrible eyes and gnashes his teeth at me, before slamming a wide punch through the air, smacking Therese hard in the shoulder.

“No!” I scream as Therese flies through the air hitting four of the cultist. She roars, feet scrambling as my arrows continue to fly. Hitting the pride monster, before something hard and dark hits me. It’s not a being, but some sort of magic holding me down.

Therese flies over me and hits something and I’m free. There is madness swirling and all I see is the portal before me, but I turn to search for Therese. She’s barely toward me and seems bigger than ever. I leap into the air, wrapping my arms around her neck, pressing my body the length of hers as she leapt for the portal.

The screaming of the pride demon erupts behind us and I can smell his thick musk. His fist swings down, just barely missing me as we fall into the dark whole into whatever realm is on the other end.

***  
We hit the rocks hard as the portal snaps shut behind us. Purple smoke floats off Therese’s massive panther form. She lays breathing hard and I shift and gasp sharply as pain courses through a few areas of my body. 

Her head shoots up and I look down to see where needles of taint have pricked me and bleed poison into my system. I start ripping out the small darts as blood flows from the wounds. Scrabbling for my bag for bandages I tie them shut hopping to stop bleeding.

Therese has managed to get up, limping slowly as she nuzzles me and sniffs at the wound. Her large eyes meeting mine. I struggle to get to my feet, staggering as I have to catch onto her. She bends down so I can crawl on her back.

“When did you get so large, darling?” I purr into her ear. She’s panting as she trots away toward where I feel Rindy, a spire sticking from the heart of the landscape.

My arms barely squeeze around her neck and my legs are widen over her chest. I don’t know if it is the power of her magic or this place, but she is definitely the largest she has ever been.

We make quick tracks toward the tower and this time there are no guards. In this strange land, the rules are obviously played differently. I slide down to face the mouthless spire. I stand over the spot where Rindy is below us, head swimming as I try to think what to do.

Therese watches me and paws at the ground. I reach out for her instinctively.

“Together?” I whisper as a low purr feels me from the top of my head to the tips of my toes. My hand slides along her massive flank and I reach down to touch the ground, feeling the strangeness of the soil and the roots and the creature that are so full of that dark other that makes up my own Rindy and I long for her. So close and yet so far from me and suddenly, the ground parts and consumes us.


	14. Like Stars in the Galaxy

Ro

The ground releases us into a dark dungeon lit only by torches. Desire or Lust or whatever she is calling herself these days stands over the bloody back of my child. Behind her Abby and Gen are in cuffs and bruised.

Anger snaps in me and I lift my bow and take sight. We’re are only a few yards apart so when I release it with a snarl it hits its mark with a terrible smack. Dark inky blood pools unnaturally around the wound in the back of her head as she swirls around with a screech.

Therese snarls and leaps into the air. The force of her action nearly knocks me off my feet. When they hit the ground with such force the shackles release both Abby and Gen as strange small black creatures stream into the room, jeering with tiny pitch forks. 

Abby shoots something from her hands toward me and I try to block it with my hands. Quickly I release it is blocking me from the creatures.

“To me!” She cries and I charge toward her so that the magical barrier can protect us all. I begin to shoot at the little demons, happy to see that my arrows pierce through the defense without harming it. Green magic edge them and sends those little creatures screaming away.

“Use your magic differently,” Abby says. “It functions differently here and you have a lot more resources than I.” 

I close my eyes and draw upon the forces around me and when I fire my next arrow instead of taking out one creature, it takes out dozens at a time.

Something sparkles over Abbey and her broken nose looks healed.

“Save your energy for Ryva,”Abby says.

“Who?” Gen demands, looking confused and Abby sighs as I smile at the thought of Rindy using her birth name again despite the situation.

“Rindy damn it,” Abby barks. “We have to get her free before that damned bitch kills Therese.”

While Therese has grown powerful she’s still new to this form. Desire has struggled to get the upper hand and has taken quite a bit of damage before Rindy cries out.

“Don’t kill her…please…don’t,” she begs so fiercely that it startles everyone in the room. Therese pauses teeth bared over Desire’s neck, her growl deep as Desire has plunged ghastly dark claws into Therese’s blood soaked fur. Then, Desire attacks gaining the upper hand and throwing Therese off of her as if she is a mere kitten. Black and orange draw inward toward her and burst out across the room, knocking down demon and foe alike.

Abby’s magic barrier shatters and I’m thrown against the stone wall hard enough I feel bones pop. Then, Therese snarls her most dangerous growl and glowing a tangled green she attacks again, ripping Desire apart mercilessly until she herself has consumed the taint of her.

“Therese,” I beg for her to stop and reach out for her hissing in as pain lances up my arm.

The last of leather straps fall away from Rindy and she struggles to rise and miserably fails. She collapses onto the stone ground a mass of blood and tissue and bruise toward Therese and the nothingness of a creature I could barely understand.

“Desire—“ she cries. “You—You killed her.”

“She wasn’t the woman you cared for anymore,” Sister Gen says as she shakily rises to her feet, crossing to Rindy. “She was corrupted.”

“She’d been free. She needed to heal,” Rindy cries heartbroken. “Don’t we all deserve that chance when we’ve been hurt?” She collapses into Sister Gen, sobbing and the woman holds her as if Rindy is not in a monster form and suddenly the large warrior seems much smaller. There is peculiarness in the manner in which they talk to each other that I can’t quite put my finger on. 

Therese moans toward Rindy and she turns away.

“She’s not ready, Therese,” Sister Gen says. “I’ll be with you in a moment, but I need to tend to Rindy’s wounds first. She’s very hurt.”

One by one Sister Gen heals us. Abby offers my daughter her clothing, covering the bruises that still line her body as Gen only had the healing capacity to heal our wounds and mend our bones at this time. 

Finally, I am able to hug my daughter to me.

“How did you know?” Rindy asks me. “How did you find us?”

“I don’t know…I know you’ve been in danger before, but this time it sang out to me and woke me from a dead sleep,” I reply.

“It’s the taint. It’s connected you to this side of the portals,” Sister Gen says. I tilt my head, confused as to how she would know that. “It’s the way of water magic. I’ve already walked this path.” Her hand isn’t far from Rindy’s shoulder as she strokes the bare skin in an intimate way. “I’m sorry, you lost Desire, but she isn’t really gone. She’ll reform somewhere else in this realm.”

“Angrier and more vindictive at the hands of my friends,” Rindy says and shakes her head. “I can’t believe you did that, Therese. That you are capable of killing someone.” I stiffen my back.

“Desire was a monster—“ I start.

“Desire is as much a monster as I am,” Rindy snarls. I rub the bridge of my nose frustrated with the track of this conversation.

“Rindy!” I snap. “You are not one of these horrid creatures. You are different.”

“You are right and wrong,” Sister Gen says. “You are both.” Rindy snaps her head toward Sister Gen and suddenly, I regret having sent them to fetch her. What kind of fools errand was this anyway? I had risked my friend and my daughter’s life for this stranger.

“You don’t understand,” Rindy says with a huff of air and rises to her feet with the help of Sister Gen. “Thank you…” She’s looking down at this peculiar water witch that I now have the desire to rip limb from limb.”

“Hey,” Abby says and a low dangerous growl escapes Therese.

“She is a friend, Therese,” I assure her as she crosses to me, rubs against me and looks head on at my former lover. Abby’s eyes widen as she realizes the size of Therese now and steps away from me. Therese steps toward her again and for once I fear for Abby’s life. Blood still drips from Therese’s fangs, but then she butts her head against Abby’s chest as gently as she can, nearly bowling her over and starts to purr.

And with that, after this horrible event we all burst out laughing. We’re all bit desperate I imagine after everything. Abby hugs her tightly.

“I was just going to say,” Abby’s voice vibrating from the force of Therese’s purrs. “I was going to say that she should lighten up. Oh hell, fuck it. Rindy is a grown as warrior and doesn’t need me to defend her against her mother.”

Rindy lifts and eyebrow at me.

“It’s not like I am an innocent maiden mother,” she says. “This is the first time I’ve been in this dungeon. You should know that too, Gen.”

“I already know it, my dear,” she says calmly and looks up Rindy with warm and nearly ancient eyes. I find myself wondering how many paths has this strange woman walked in her life that has made her seem so old in such a young body and why she has fallen so for my daughter, especially in this form when no other elf would look at her.

Then, Therese bumps into me and I realize with a start that I fell in love with this one in an entirely different form and maybe I shouldn’t be one to judge these matters.

“We can stay here for the night. I need to rest,” Rindy says. “To get us back to the other side.”

“It will be safe her. Desire’s presence has dissipated and she will not be able to regain strength for some time. The defenses are still up from what I can sense,” Sister Gen says.

“They are,” Rindy replies looking perplexed at the small woman by her side. “We will be safe. I can keep us safe here for the night. Follow me.” 

She leads us out of the dungeon thankfully and shows a set of rooms that each contain their own baths with running water. So Therese and I are able to bathe in privacy and soon collapse into bed together exhausted.

***  
Rindy

Sister Gen pauses at a door, stopping to look at me.

“This is the room you shared with her.”

“How do you know that?” I ask Gen. She gives me a strange sort of smile that’s sad.

“You’ve told me. Will you stay with me tonight? I’ve spent my life waiting for you,” she says and offers a hand. “Please forgive me if I’m impatient.” Our hands touch and a soothing current flows through me as she leads me to the bathing chambers.

Her fingers move to my clothing, stroking the ridges of my abdomen as she looks up to me for permission. I nod, longing for a kind touch…for a truly loving touch after the violation I’ve had to endure. I shudder and she hesitates.

“Come to me,” she begs urgently, pulling my shirt and I think she is desperate for a kiss, but instead she embraces me. She buries my head into her neck and deep breath of the rich river and I’m sobbing, curling and crumbling into surprisingly strong arms as I curl around her. She fits against me like a puzzle piece.

“I’m sorry. This isn’t very romantic,” I say through the tears.

“Hush…” she commands. “Tonight is not a romantic night. You’ve been hurt. I merely wish to comfort you.”

“No one has seen the pair of me and loved me,” I whisper. “I don’t even know you.”

“I think you know me better than you think you do,” she replies. “Don’t you feel it? Deep within you my magic has already touched you because you’ve allowed it to.” I nod.

“I love you,” I say a little stunned by the words that come out of my mouth. “We just met…I don’t understand.”

“In every time I’ve walked with you…we were soul mates,” she says. “This time is no different.”

“Did I have ever refuse you?”

“A few times, but you always came back,” she says with a sad smile. “Sometimes you weren’t ready, but I can tell…you’re ready tonight. I know it can be daunting.”

“I want to…I’m tired of being anchorless.”

“I know…me too. Do you want to know something about me?” She asks. “I can tell you while we have a bath.” I nod against her as she gently plucks my shirt from me and slide off my pants as she undresses. She doesn’t seem ashamed of her body, even though it is far from perfect.

I’ve lived among elves so it hard to think judiciously about a human body. It is a body full of charming curves and in the flex there is muscles, but she is a Venus slightly plump from starchy veggies and hard work. Her hands are calloused from the cold and the blistering labor of the fields. She glances at me and suddenly her faces turns white as if she has realized something dreadful.

She covers her body as best as she can, reaching for her robes.

“What’s the matter?” I ask completely charmed by her vulnerability after her unsettling confidence.

“I…I forget…my body is usually different. Even the beginning of this life my body was different. I don’t always live as a sister and never as a simple hermit healer. I’d forgotten that I let myself go.”

“Overconfidence perhaps,” I purr and her cheeks flush. “I don’t mind the form. I’m surrounded by perfection and this…this is real.” I offer my clawed hand from the steaming water and she hesitantly removes her hand from a ripe boob that sinks deliciously against firm flesh as I pull her into the water with me.

Our lips and body connect and this time there is a deep dark current that draws us together as if this journey was always meant to be. I gasp against her, pulling her plush form to mine and feeling the hard muscle beneath the cushion, driving me mad with a want so deep that it shocks me.

My fangs graze her neck and she gasps.

“I’m sorry—“

“Don’t be…it’s so hot. I should be sorry—“

“Don’t,” I say and pulling her tighter against me, feeling the crush of her flesh against mine. “More of you to grab.” A little suck of air and I’ve captured her lips again. “You’re damn sexy and perfect for me, sister.”

“There are things I need to tell you about me,” she says desperately.

“Fuck it, I need this. I need you. It’s been too long. Remember, I’ve lived this life longer without you.” I suck against her flesh desperately seeking the heat and the damp sweat. She’s so perfect.

“Oh hell—the best laid plans—“ She shoves me against the brink of the porcelain tub and grabs some soap. “Clean yourself damn it. Our first time isn’t going to be in a tub. I want that bed with you.”

I desperately pull away with a huff and scrub down as she does the same. Then, I pluck her from the tub, grab a towel and dry her off as quickly as I can as she does the same with me. We follow the droplets with our tongues and lips.

I wrap her in a red silk robe that looks so fucking lush on her form and myself in in a blue one undone. We step in the opulent rooms. A large mantle roars with a true fire that lights every bend and curve of the robe and her fertile form.

Fire stirs within me and I grab her from behind and toss her on wonderful array of cozy and soft blankets. She’s landed on her back and her eyes gleam wickedly and yet there is that insecurity there that I wish to rip away.

“May I?” I ask, dropping the robe from my own body. She nods.

“Are you sure?” She asks. “You’ve been through a lot today.”

“Yes…but you’ve awaken something within me that needs to be quenched,” I reply. “I need you. I love you. I adore you. Let me worship at your shrine.” I place a knee on the bed and curve my body familiar with the way the light dances on my body in this room. How the shadows are designed to carve out and show the body in the most perfect of ways. “Please.”

“Oh goddess, take me.” She begs and untie her robe and marvel at succulence and gravidness that is her. My lover, now and always, no matter the form she is mine.” My mouth travels her form, luxuriating in everything that is hers and it’s as if we’ve always been together since the beginning of time. Whether it is in my elven form or her in a perfectly thin human form that could outshine any elf.

“Fuck, I adore you,” I whimper against her flesh. I’m not a mighty warrior before her I drag myself to my knees kissing her inner thighs. “Mistress.” It slips out and she stiffens beneath me.

Suddenly, she sits up and takes me face.

“I am never your mistress,” she says. “I am your lover. I am always here for you, but I will never lay one finger on you. Have you enough scars in this lifetime and every other? Why do you crave to bring yourself so much hurt.” Her eyes are full of tears. “You will always be my snuggle queen.”

“Really? That’s what we’re going with here?” I ask her with a lopsided grin at her corniness and she nods quickly. “I—I don’t know why I let her hurt me.”

“It felt better than the want, the longing and the loneliness, you will tell me one day,” she says, eyes drifting off and nearly becoming translucent. 

“Hey, we’re in the middle of something, babe,” I say and her eyes snap back and she pecks my lips.

“I like that a lot better,” she says and snuggles back into the covers making me laugh. Something about her makes me feel as if this isn’t the first time, but rather a series of brilliant moments that shine like stars through the galaxy.

I tickle her and kiss and lick her flesh, drawing out the poetry of her murmurs and gentle hums. The rock of her hips and her wetness assures me that she is ready for the main course and I happily bring her to that transcendence. She is literally the woman of my destiny.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this will tide you over for the weekend. :)


	15. The Redheads Will Always get Ya

Ro  
We step out of the portal and into the real world or what I had always considered the real world. My hand flutters to my chest and my Therese grabs my elbow to help settle me.

Last night, she had fallen asleep in her bestial form, massive and radiating a power that filled me warmth near the fire. I had curled up against her large shoulder, cuddled against her warmth and had fallen asleep exhausted myself from the days event.

And now, another day stand before us just out of Waterloo. Damn Waterloo. Where I had encountered my first portal so close and also the love of my life. Why do the worst and best things in our life often go hand in hand? I do not know.

Therese seems to sense something in me.

“We need to regather ourselves. Can we stop off at Mrs. Robichek’s? I bet she has fish for everyone.”

“Oh,” I breathe, relaxing. “What a wonderful idea.” I laugh at the very thought of my dear kitten begging for scraps once upon a time. I can barely imagine my dear Therese as a kitten now that I have seen her larger form.

Everyone is looking at me strangely except Therese and that water witch. Therese’s lips are curled in amusement.

“Oh it’s a long story,” I say and wave my hand at the others, squeezing Therese in a side hug and sharing a wink with her. “My kitten—“ I tap her chin. “—introduced us a long time ago. The rest, I’d like to keep between us.” Therese nuzzles into me and grins.

“Oh stop you two or you four!” Abby declares. “Take us to this Mrs. Robicheck and let’s have at these portals once and for all, so I can go back to my life.”

“Must you be a sourpuss all the time, Abby.” I lift an eyebrow at her. She rolls her eyes and pats me on the shoulder, giving Therese a playful ruffle of the hair. Therese smiles at her, eyes dancing merely.

“Mrs. Robicheck has the best fish,” she promises. “They are always fresh. She goes fishing in her pound every morning.”

“I’m sure she does.” Abby let’s out a sigh. “Let’s get some fish then.” The group follows Therese up the path to the cottage just on the edge of town. It’s just as we left it. Large, nearly forgotten, yet strangely homely.

Therese knocks on the door, standing on the balls of her feet.

“Mrs. Robicheck!” Therese yells quite suddenly, startling me as she repeats this knocking and calling her name before the door swings up and the familiar grey haired and very large woman shuffles out and embraces Therese.

“Oh my word! It’s my kitten!” She declares quite happy. “Come in, come in—oh my. What a different group you’ve brought me and my how you’ve grown. Inside at once before someone notices all the power hovering on my doorstep.”

“Mrs. Robicheck. I missed you so much,” Therese says excitedly under the overcurrent of Mrs. Robicheck’s words. “I thought of your fish and I said we have to see here, because I miss her so much and so hungry for fresh fish.”

“My how your power has grown darling. I dare say I can’t call you a kitten any longer,” Mrs. Robicheck says and squeezes her cheeks. “And what have you brought me. You’re lady friend has return.” She hugs me. “Who are your friends, darlings?”

“My daughter—“ I manage and wonder what she will see. She pauses and tilts her head, eyes narrowing a bit as her eyebrows lifted.

“I know you,” she says in a low voice and my daughter shuffles under cloak.

“I’m trying to change my ways,” she says, keeping her head down. “Robicheck Madam.” She curtesies and drops to her knee. “Please for forgive me. I am trying to right what I have done wrong.”

“Too little and too late, Ryva,” Mrs. Robicheck says in a cold voice that doesn’t seem like her at all. “Do you know who you have brought me, kitten?”

“My friend?” Therese says and grabs Rindy tightly. “She’s my friend.”

“She’s also the cause that brings you to my doorstep,” Mrs. Robicheck snaps. “All for that nasty blade she carries on her back. She betrayed her people for a scrap of steel.”

“Rindy?” I ask appalled. It cannot be true.

“I was starving and dying in the Other realm. I had no way of survival.”

“So you gave an elf to a human, who cut out their heart and bound and cursed the spirit you had a bounty on. It’s all because you were hungry, ambitious,” Mrs. Robicheck accused.

“I was barely surviving. When I acquired this sword…it changed my life over there. I didn’t know…I didn’t know about the portals.”

“You didn’t know about a lot of things…” Mrs. Robicheck says coldly. “And yet here we all…how many hearts were lost because of you? How many elves did you give away?”

“Just the one, I swear! I didn’t know what they were going to do. It seemed a small price to pay at the time. Hand over one troublemaker in one realm and gain a way to survive in the other. I had no idea they were going to take a heart and do the atrocity they were going to do! You can’t blame all of this on me.”

“And yet, you run away from even a small scrap of responsibility. Someone must pay for the horror that has spread in both worlds,” Mrs. Robicheck says.

“Now, wait a minute,” I say angrily. “She’s my daughter.”

“I don’t care if she is the daughter of the king himself,” Mrs. Robicheck declares. “She has committed a heinous act and who will stand against it?”

“Yes is she the true culprit?” Gen asks. “Or do you wish to leave those of the truly heinous crimes alone so you can attack the vulnerable.”

“The vulnerable,” Mrs. Robicheck snarls. “She spent her life begging and yet having everything she desired. She created river of blood and pretended to be a scholar. Darkness is in her veins. It is who and what she is.”

“It is who I am, but not who I want to be,” Rindy says stepping away from each of us toward Mrs. Robicheck. “I know I have done more wrongs than right in my life. I know I have taken all the wrong paths. I don’t want to continue this way. I’ve been exposed in the light. This true form of mine cannot hide a moment longer. Let me give me life trying to set to rights the horror I’ve done and then you may have your way with me.”

“Grandmother—“ a voice interrupts us. I look up toward the worn stairs and I am surprised to see a gypsy-like woman with bright red hair tramps down them. Abby’s eyebrow lifts. “What is going on? I’ve never heard you talk to a guest like this.”

“Well, it’s been awhile since a guest of her caliber has stepped into my home,” Mrs. Robicheck grumbles, rearranging her layered clothing. “Fine I’ll make fish and discuss ways you can fix this problem, but it would have helped hundreds of years ago.”

“She wasn’t allowed to leave the forrest,” I say. “I was strict about that.”

“Don’t make excuses for my behavior, mother. I was hiding the shame of what I had done, because I didn’t know how to fix it other than study it on this side. I thought it was something that had to be fixed from the other side. I was wrong.”

“I have a feeling it won’t be the last time we will be wrong about things, darling,” I say and reach up to touch her face. “I will always love you.”

“Thank you,” she says. “I’m sorry for what I’ve done.”

“You shouldn’t of done it, but desperation leads us to do things we wouldn’t normally do and if half of what I’ve seen about your life in the other realm than I know you made the best decision you were capable of at the time.” 

She pauses, staring past me and then nods slowly.

“Thank you,” she whispers and Gen squeezes her hand, wrapping herself around it.

I back away and turn to Mrs. Robicheck who is busy preparing us fish.

“If you do not wish up to stay we can leave,” I say and she drops her pan loudly.

“I didn’t say that,” she says. “You are all welcome here. Only she, the wizard and the water witch are probationary.” I snort a laugh.

“So all of our friends? Therese, you never said your friend was inhospitable.”

“What’s wrong with Abby and Gen?” Therese whines and steps up to Mrs. Robicheck.

The redhaired woman crosses her arms.

“Yeah what is wrong with them and what the hell is going on?”

“Who are you anyway?” Abby says. “And who is this woman who thinks she can run the whole goddamn show? Why did you call her Madam? She’s loonie as the day is long.”

“She’s the great dragon, Abby,” Rindy whispers loudly, looking fearful. “Don’t talk like that to her. She may be blind, but she dangerous as hell.” Mrs. Robicheck chuckles at that. 

“She is not a dragon,” Abby says dryly.

“Yeah she is,” the granddaughter says frankly.

“No. She isn’t.”

“Says who? If she’s blind, so are you. Can’t you see anything?” She says.

“Who the hell are you?” Abby nearly snarls. “What is going on?”

“I’m Ruby,” she says, “and why are you being so rude?”

“Rude? Your grandmother is threatening a friend of mine in her own home.”

“She’s cranky. She’s very old.”

“Oh and that makes it okay.”

“When you are as powerful and old as her. You can dislike and like who ever you like. She doesn’t like water witches because she is a fire dragon. It’s nothing personal mind you—“ She directs this to Gen who shakes her head, looking amused.

“None taken,” she replies peacefully and this earns her a look from Rindy.

“She doesn’t like you, because of your recent antics with the cultists. You were allied with them, weren’t you? What’s with the change of heart?”

“Oh, I never worked for them. They bound me to a demon—ahem—a spirit Desire or her cursed form Jealousy I should say. These guys released me. Her included.”

“Fine, here’s your fish and your probationary status has been removed,” Mrs. Robicheck says and starts dumping fish on the table. “This one is for you dear—“

“Thanks, Mrs. Robicheck,” Therese says gleefully and I let out an exasperated sigh. 

“Now, you sit down and eat. Stop fretting on how you can save the world,” Mrs. Robicheck says to me and forces me to sit between Therese and Rindy. “I’m not going to eat your daughter today and everyone is safe in my house. Now relax after dinner we can talk about how to deal with these portals.”

I nod, trying to relax but finding it hard. Then, I look around the table and a comfort fills me. I have strong allies and friends and even a lover. My angel flung out of space. Therese eats her fish quite happily. Rindy seems to have relaxed next to Gen, who is calm and unflappable as ever. Ruby is giving Abby trouble, but it’s nothing I imagine she can’t handle. I find an evil grin plastering itself across my face as Abby has to deal with her own young thing.

A hint of grey in her hair brings out the wisdom that is tucked away in human form. Fine wrinkles cross her face and marks where she frowns. Oh how sad I am, that she hasn’t smiled more in her life. But sitting next to the fiery being she seems both perplexed and even dare I say—slightly charmed.


	16. An Elf's Heart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As ever, thank you for your patience with my irregular posting during this particular fan-fic. Life is fun, but oh boy is it hectic! 
> 
> Please enjoy this next step to the finality of our tale. Thanks for sticking with me!!

There are only two chairs at the fire and it seems they are for Mrs. Robicheck and I. Though, I had tried to give it to Abby since she is physically older than I, but she refused it. I smirk to myself thinking she is trying to impress the young red-headed dragonling. Therese sits next to my feet, pressed against my knees. Abby sits on a pouf in front of me, eyes trained on the red-headed woman beside her daughter. Rindy and Gen are cuddled near the fire. My daughter finally comfortable enough to shed her cloak wings and reveal her form again, arm wrapped around the portly woman beside her. They are quite the pair and I still don’t know how I feel about my daughter dating someone so impoverished and without title, but then I look to Therese.

It’s not like I can complain and our family can handle the strain of another generation that doesn’t sap the resources, especially if I’m banned from the forrest forever. I sigh thoughtfully as ideas for plans are thrown out as I think about Therese and what I long to give her. I must do it before we face the end of whatever this is. It will mean the same before or after, but I want to give her something that might encourage her to survive.

I stroke the back of her head and her neck, feeling the fine hairs under my nails. Her skin raises in goosebumps and I tremble at her sensitivity to my touch still. She is such a lovely girl…

“Carolina,” Abby says sharply. “Are you listening?”

I shake my head.

“No, my thoughts have strayed. What is it?”

“You will be used for ranged attacks only. Ruby says she can light your arrows on fire.” I look up at Ruby and she smiles.

“They will even hurt the flesh of a spirit. We must somehow free them and convince them to return to their realm or we risk a war between realms.”

“We already risk that, but I think I can manage a truce until constructive discussions can be made if we eliminate the cultists threat,” Mrs. Robicheck says.

“Does that mean you will help us?” I ask her curiously. She takes a deep breath and looks regretful.

“I fear I cannot in this realm. I am well beyond the age of easily changing form. I will send my granddaughter in my stead. She is strong and pure of heart. She will know what I expect.” I look to the young woman, perhaps just a few years older than Therese.

“And what aid can a fire dragon bring us?” I ask curiously. She grins at me.

“Besides my large alter ego, I bring fire obviously. Think of me as a sort of combat mage in human form and a beast with fire in my basket. Also, I know the other realm as well as your daughter.”

Rindy snorts.

“Okay, not as well as her, because I didn’t grow up in poverty over there. How did you even survive as a child?” The young woman shakes her head in disbelief.

“I managed,” Rindy says gruffly. Gen strokers her arm, causing the stiffening form to relax under her gentle ministrations.

“You do not sense it, because you are still a young thing for an elf,” Mrs. Robicheck says with a surly chuckle. I lift an eyebrow. No one recently has dared called me young when I am the oldest in the group, but I know that Mrs. Robicheck is the oldest creature I have ever met now that I have been to the Other realm and can sense her true form revealed. “With all the forces combined you will be able to close the portals, but you must free the spirits who are cursed. It is no easy task I ask of you for you know how humans are. They will sacrifice themselves on this mountain.”

“Many of them are just as entrapped at the spirits by the lure of taint,” Abby says angrily. “You ask us to free your spirits but sacrifice the humans who are innocent in this?”

“Then, tell me how you shall tell them apart from those who’ve done this wicked thing?” Mrs. Robicheck declares. “Do you have some special way to see in the hearts of man?” Abby bites her lip and shakes her head.

“I shall live and they shall die for what?” She says, voice filled with desperation now. Mrs. Robicheck sighs.

“Youngling, this is the price for wrong.”

“It’s not fair,” Abby says fiercely. “It isn’t. They’ve done no wrong.”

“But it is your race that has.”

“So innocents must die because what a few have done?” She says. “Dragon, have you done no wrong in your long life? Have you gotten away with it?”

“I’m not on trial,” Mrs. Robicheck growls lowly and flicks her hand. “It is the human race.”

“If there was a way, Abby…” I start and she looks at me fiercely, tears in her eyes.

“All I’m asking for us is to try just like for those spirits. You freed me when you removed the cursed spirit from me. If we can free them…perhaps we will have allies instead of enemies?”

“For elves, dragon, and whatever my daughter is?” I demand. “We are nothing but freaks to them, Abby.”

“You were never a freak to me,” she says in a hushed voice. “Will you judge us all against those that have hurt you?”

“Listen,” Gen says. “We know there will be spirit and human loses. Do we really want to bear innocent blood on our hands? For those of us who already bear the blood of innocents, do we want more? I plead also with you that we spare as many lives as we possibly can. We separate the humans from their spirit forms. It will be hard. We might lose a few of our own. We might all perish, but is it not the correct path?”

“At the risk of not closing the portals? If you close the first, they all shall close,” Mrs. Robicheck says.

“Why didn’t you tell me this before?” I demand of her and she shrugs.

“You did not have the means before. You are a changed person now. You are willing to close the portals at all costs to gain a foothold back into your realm.”

The words sting and blink them away. Therese looks up at me with sad eyes.

“Ro?” She asks me. 

“Perhaps the taint has corrupted you,” I finally dare to speak and shiver. An eery sort of silence falls over the den and Mrs. Robicheck huffs.

“Unbelievable. Again you accuse of me. Accuse me of what? If I am callous it is because of the wounds that have been inflicted my lands. It is the same for you. What greater good can be expected from these few humans that would dare risk not closing the portal. This chance will come only once. How many fire, water, void, nature, and air witches do you know? And now you are all here before me and you want to risk this endeavor for a few lives.”

Rubbing my head, I feel perplexed. I honestly don’t know what to do. Therese takes my other hand in hers and strokes it carefully.

“I don’t know,” I whisper. I shake my head. “I once was sure of the right thing, but I fear I do not know anything now.”

“I vote we spare as many lives as we can. What use is a truce between our worlds with innocent lives between us?” Rindy says quietly.

“You know how I feel,” Abby grunts.

“And I,” Gen says with a nod.

“I agree,” Ruby says and Mrs. Robicheck sputters at the audacity of the young woman beside her.

“Then, it doesn’t matter what we think, Ro. I’d follow you into darkness and back if it meant being by your side,” Therese says and blinks at me. My heart twists at the thought. Has my taint effected her? My dear sweet summer lover?

“Then it is decided. Tomorrow, we strike before they discover us,” I say. “How do we close the portal?”

“It will become self-evident,” Mrs. Robicheck says in her vague manner. Abby snorts and I lift an eyebrow.

“We are to risk our lives for this? When we have no clear idea of what we are against? How to close the close the portal, how many or what type of foe? This is risky business.”

“No one said it would be easy. In fact, you knew this would be impossible. The chances of you closing this portal are astronomical. Absolutely hopeless.”

“Then why offer up your granddaughter?” I demand of her. “If we are to die?”

“It is her choice, but it is the only way. Just because it is impossible doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be attempted. There was a great wrong done and that must be reconciled whether now or in another millennium. We merely trying to prevent an extinction of the elven race.”

My head rears up at the very idea, but she’s right. The horror of it. Power begets only power. She shrugs at me as merely stating a fact. Tears stream down my face.

Therese grabs my cheeks and kisses my forehead.

“At least, we will have tried,” Therese whispers to me. “You’ve given up so much.” She takes my hand and kisses that too. “I can’t think of a more honorable thing to do.”

“It isn’t right,” I say quietly. “You should be taken care of…painting beautiful things.” She invites herself on my lap, curling up there.

“I have everything I ever wanted right here with you. Even if having it for a short time…it’s better than not having it at all.” I shake my head.

“You should have it all of your life,” I return and she smiles gently.

“You should have too,” she says. “Call me selfish.” She squeezes me tightly.

“I think you all should get some rest. Ruby will show you your rooms. Some of you will have to share, but I’m sure it won’t be a problem,” Mrs. Robicheck says. “I’m turning in…I’m much too old to stay up this late.”

Ruby kisses her grandmother’s papery cheek, before gathering us up all like chicks and leading us up the crooked set of stairs.

The first room, she gives to Gen and Rindy. Then, she let’s Abby know she’ll have to share a room with her. Finally, Therese and I reach our room.

“Thanks, Ruby,” Therese says and hugs her before ducking into the quiet back bedroom. Therese pops into the room and collapses on the bed. “It feels like forever since we were here last.” I smile at her as I close the door, waving to Ruby goodnight.

“Yes, like another lifetime. We were two different people then, weren’t we?” I ask her and she nods quickly. She sits up and opens up her arms to me. I crawl into bed next to her and our lips meet as if she is the moon and I am the night.

I suck in a deep breath of her wonderful wild scent. She’s desperately kissing my skin, pulling at my cloak, scarves, and tunic.

“Wait…wait, Therese.” She moans against me.

“I want you,” she whines flatly. I chuckle warmly against her, grazing my fingers through her fine hair.

“I know, darling, but please wait. I have something I must give you.”

“Give me?” She says. I nod. I pull back and go to my back. She mewls in discomfort as I toss her a sleep shirt.

“Clothes? I don’t want clothes,” she says with a wicked grin.

“Just for a moment,” I say. “This is important.” She tries to sober up, but her eyes watch me as my hands nervously strip off my outerwear. The clothes fall to the chair, followed by my tunic and breaches. It still amazes she can love my elven body, so different from her own. 

Then, I remove my breast band and underthings before pulling on my own tunic. I turn to her and her things wildly fly off of her in all directions and she looks between me and her tunic as if she is not exactly sure she wants to put it on still.

I grab it and set it aside and slide back into her arms.

“I want to give you something that an elf rarely gives up,” I whisper. “Lately, it’s only been taken, but I want to freely give it to you.”

“Your heart?” She asks. “I don’t want to open a portal.” She shakes her head.

“Yes, immortality can offer us great power, but I know you will safe guard it for me.”

“Wait—what?” She demands, so confused.

“When an elf’s heart is given out of love to a mortal creature than she sacrifices her immortality,” I whisper. “There are many tales of this, but they only end in heartache. Therese…when you draw your last breathe so will I unless I am killed before you. I cannot bear living in this life one moment without you.”

Therese is shaking her head, crying now.

“No!” She says vehemently. “I won’t take it. I won’t take your life.” 

“Shhh,” I whisper gently. “I will be miserable without you. At least this way, I won’t have to take my life for it was already given.” I kiss away her tears, but she shakes her head again.

“Ro,” she whispers. “I can’t take this. It’s too much.” Her arms surround me as she pulls me into her lap. I smile softly. “What if something happens tomorrow? What if I’m killed? You’re a ranger. You could still yet live and find another love.”

“I’ve walked hundreds of years never knowing what love was until I met you. Trust me, Therese. If I die tomorrow I will be a happy woman.” Her green eyes peer up at me, searching desperately. “Will you be my life mate? I have little to offer you now, except this.” I offer her my hand.

“I had even less to offer you when you took me under wing,” she says quietly and thoughtfully. Her fingers slide into mine. Swallowing, I can’t believe this is happening and that I have Therese. “I love you, Ro. I love you more than anything.”

“I know,” I say and embrace her. Our lips crash together again in passion and longing. I suck her bottom lip as her tongue requests entrance. Shuddering, I feel her tasting desperately everything I have to offer. She grabs the hem of my night shirt and pulls it over my head, breaking our kiss. I’m light headed and confused from it’s duration.

She smiles wickedly at me. “No clothes.” Next, her hands find my hips and next thing I know, I’m lying flat on the bed with a very naked Therese looming over me.

Her kisses demand my attention, our lips connecting until she carves an exquisite fiery path down my jaw and neck. Sucking hard at my pulse, I feel my hips uncontrollably buck and her hands catch them, controlling them gently and confidently.

“Therese.”

“We’re doing this slow tonight,” she says. “No rush.” Her voice is low and rumbly. My breath shudders through me again as she kisses my prominent collar bones and reaches my breasts in the next moment. 

My body jolts again as lips grab on and her tongue flicks and it ends with a graze of her teeth. Therese has never hurt me, nor will. It just another sensation that rocks powerfully through me like the ocean cresting against the rocks. With an elbow over my eyes, I moan.

“Kitten.”

She continues to suckle, taking much too long on one side before kissing her way to the other neglected nub. My breath is already coming harder now. My attention zoned into the wonderful feel of those passionate lips, that hot breath and warm tongue doing a dance I never knew. My hips try to rock against hers, and all I can feel is skin, warm skin everywhere. 

Tears streak down my face as she kisses me down my abdomen and when I peak over to see her, there is nothing but short brown hair until those wild green eyes flash up at me, kissing the curve of my hip and nipping again at my inner thigh.

I collapse back down on the bed, gripping the sheets as Therese, my sweet kitten, finds her milk from the source. A nose nuzzling in my core, and a warm tongue licks and those knowledgeable lips pull and tug until I’m nothing more than a writhing mess.

“Mine,” I say as something carnal drags from me and my fingers snag and pull her hair. Therese moans as I push her deeper and her tongue entreats into me. “Oh darling! Therese!” I come with a snap, my hips thrust off the bed and Therese embraces me, arm around my lower half, gently riding the wave of this incredible climax and perhaps our last night together in this world.


	17. The Last Battle

I don’t want to wake up. My eyes flutter to the warm body next to me underneath the quilt. My body is curved around my kitten’s. I make a face, feeling my feet sticking off the bed and in the cold. I curl them under the bed and find it all to tempting to intertwine them into the warmth of Therese’s legs.

“Ro,” Therese moans and turns into my arms, pressing against me, but gently shoves my chest too. “You’re feet are freezing!” She pulls me close, arms to chest and legs pressing into my abdomen as they flee the chill of my feet. I chuckle warmly.

“I’m sorry, darling. That is the cost of being with someone much taller than you,” I tease and kiss her forehead. She scrunches her face.

“I don’t wanna to get up,” she whines. Sighing, I pull her as close as I can and one of Therese’s legs tucks in between mine and the other is over my hip. My body is suddenly alive with sensations.

“Me neither,” I say and gently kiss lips, pulling the quilt over our heads and I feel her smile against my lips. Underneath the blanket, my hair drapes over us, covering her like a curtain and I desperately taste all of her I can reach in one passionate search, eventually I land on those wonderfully small pert breast as my fingers seek her silky entrance, circling and rising that small bit to give her joy. 

“Ro—“ she gasps. Legs wrapping around me, closing the distance between our bodies. Her body is so warm and hot, burning me in a such a wonderful way and her lips find mine again, demanding and true. “I love you—I love you so much.”

“Oh darling, I do too. I love you more than words—“ I lose them again as my body demands to worship hers. I’ve never wanted anything more than to taste, feel, smell, see, hear those gentle mewls and moans. Her hands paw at me and I smile gently, massaging me as I make love to her. This is the woman I have given my immortality too.

I am mortal now.

The thought jolts me and Therese stiffens underneath me.

“What is it?” She asks me, looking dazed and confused from my ministrations and the sudden cease. “Are you okay?”

“Y—yes.” I say and she props herself on her elbows, not looking like she believes me.

“Ro.”

“Therese, let me finish,” I say and try to push her back down, but she uses her hip to flip me over. Damn the weight difference. I glare up at her. “Therese.”

“Whats. Wrong?” She asks firmly. Looking away, she catches my chin and her eyes soften. I’m firmly distracted by her wet core on my abdomen. “Are you regretting what you gave me yesterday? Can I give it back?”

“N-n-o!” I say. Does she want to return it? I feel like a knife has stabbed me to the core of my heart. “Therese…you don’t want it?”

“Of course, I want your heart,” she says. “And I’ll keep it for as long as you want me too.”

“It’s forever, dear, until you die. There is no taking it back,” I say. “You can give it away and gain the power, but that is it and with me I die.” She places her fingers over my lips before replacing them with hers. 

“I would never do that,” she says. “I love you. I love you more than life. What’s wrong then?”

“I was thinking…of my immortality,” I admit. “That we could die today. Oh drat, Therese, I’ve ruined this.” She kisses me again fiercely.

“There will be more. I’ll make sure of it,” she says and pulls me into her arms, cradling me tightly. “It’s okay to be scared.” My lips tremble and goddess forbid there are tears in my eyes and she holds me tighter. “It’s okay, Ro.” Her hands stroke my back and suddenly I’m crying openly and my fist futily hits her collarbone softly.

“I don’t want to lose you,” I whisper through the tightness in my throat. She strokes my hair from my eyes and those green ones fine mine.

“You won’t,” she says. Her hand takes mine, our fingers intertwined tightly. “I’m right here and I’m not going to leave you. We’ll do this. I’ll keep you safe. I promise.”

I kiss her, lips trembling as she presses my head under hers. It takes a long time for me to unwind, focusing on her breathing and heartbeat.

“Ready to get dressed?” She asks me.

“Clothes?” I say weakly. Her smile is weak and I dredge up my strength and nod. 

We get ready and head downstairs.

There’s a light breakfast, opposed to Mrs. Robicheck’s earlier affair of heavy breakfast. She well knows battling with too much food on the stomach would be dangerous. I frown lightly at our rag-tag bunch of ladies and wonder how we will manage the feat before us, but there must be some sliver of hope, because if anything they look well rested.

I watch over Therese as she eats in her carefree manner as if she hasn’t a care in the world. Then, she turns to me, eyes shooting down to my plate and too me.

“You have to eat something, Ro,” she says quietly so as not to draw attention to the fact that I haven’t touched my food. She squeezes my arm reassuringly and I gather the strength solely for her.

Before I know it, Mrs. Robicheck has left us all front step. Everyone is looking at me. I am Ranger, I think.

With a sigh, everything inside of me stills and I catch a flicker of the taint…so much stronger than before. The lure powerful enough to send my feet trotting before I can speak.

“Easy, Ro.” Abby catches my arm. “The taint is much stronger here than my town. This one has been luring you for a while.”

“We must let it have me if we are to find it,” I reply. Therese frowns and grabs my elbow.

“Not without me,” she says. I squeeze her hand.

“Then, hold on tightly, kitten. For when I am following it, I don’t have much room for thought.”

“I don’t like this,” Rindy admits. 

“None of us do,” Gen says. “But we must do this. We must allow her to do this.” I nod.

“Here we go,” I say and with another sigh, I launch into the throes of the taint.

It’s hard to think clearly. There is only the lure, the draw pulling me deeper and deeper into the thrall. Within me, bubbles up thoughts and feelings like tiny explosions in my heart. My mentor disgraces me, the counsel shames me, they refuse to listen…Rindy keeps her secret from me and chases after some strange human water witch and sister of the order. Abby has grown older. She lost herself to a cult and she didn’t ask for help. She forgot about me. Mrs. Robicheck didn’t help and instead sent her inferior. And my beloved, at first all I can think on is all the ill everyone has caused her.

Then, I begin to wonder if I acted too hastily in giving her my immortality and heart. What if she will betray me? I doubt she fully understands the depth of what I have I done. How can she? She has not lived for hundreds of years and had to give up two thirds of her life to spend with a human, doing provincial things. No, not provincial. Only provincial if we survive. It is for her people that I am here. It is now because of her. 

These damned portals have destroyed my life. Why am I even seeking to close them when they are not my problem. I don’t know where I’m at when I begin to scream and rage. I clutch at my hair and feel something dreadful rip through me.

My vision becomes distorted as I turn toward the betrayers. My enemies—mages and witches, and a dragon. They must all pay for the insanity they have brought upon me.

Their looks are shocked as they stare up at me and I roar at them. Around me filter in strange blurred figures robed in black and wearing masks of angry faces. I roar at them and suddenly, Rindy draws her sword and flies in my direction.

“Mother! Don’t move!” She yells, but I lash out. Instead of reaching for my arrows I see instead a massive bear claw hit her hard, raking her flesh open and sending her flying against the wall.

Strange that I can see the red that pours down like a water fountain from above on the ancient staircase. Yellow sparks toward me and I roar again, directing it toward the shield that protects them.

Then, a grand panther walks toward me hesitating. That is her mistake. I move and feel the fire burn my flank. I roar again and leapt away into Therese’s panther form. It is larger than the bear form I hold somehow and don’t hold at the same time. I don’t know what I am and that startles me. I don’t know who I am, but the rage bubbles up again.

Therese doesn’t strike. She doesn’t growl as I roar at her. She only looks at me with mournful eyes as I growl and rage and roar against her. Rising to my feet, I strike out and she takes the hit. Turning into the next one and the next one. Wide claw marks open up her flesh and blood pours out of her as she refuses to move or attack.

“No!” I hear someone yell. “Therese, you must fight back. She will kill you. She doesn’t know what she does.”

Therese’s eyes never leave mine, soft and dark. So green like the woods I have lost forever. I let out another roar, feeling the roiling energy within me as I raise my bloody claws to strike again and again.

A horrid cut strikes me and I, Ro, hit the marble floor hard.

“Wha—“ Therese head butts me gently and I can feel the blood running down her face. “No, no, no—no!” I wail. “Therese!” Her body protects me from the taint as if she is a bulwark instead of a mere mortal being. She growls deeply toward the cultist and then I see it. The grand portal, so wide and so tall with some massive tentacle bulging out.

A hot putrid vomit threatens within me. Something is wrong with me. I try to stand to my feet and it’s Ruby that gathers me to my feet. Therese starts to move forward but I touch her flank.

“Go to Gen and be healed first,” I tell her and she turns away from the portal to Gen. She can only offer a small touch to stop the bleeding, but not the horror that I/wrath have done to her. Ruby grabs my shoulder.

“Let’s try a volley to the portal,” she says, lifting up her hand and lighting the fire. With shaking fingers, I draw and arrow and she lights it. With a fine shot, it hits the tentacle and the creature shakes and screams. The building rocks and falls apart. The cultist duck for cover and we are forced to as well.

When it calms, the ceiling is missing parts and statues have collapsed. Therese moves toward the lashing tentacle, now freed from the portal, burning. She strikes hard and fast.

Gen is at my elbow now. Her hands are on my neck.

“That was hard on you,” she says. I can feel the strange lapping of her power against me. “You should fall back.”

“Therese,” I say and look in her direction, pained that I cannot follow her.

“Rest for just a moment behind the barrier,” she says and leads me back as Ruby takes dragon form, small enough to fit precariously in the mansion we reside in. A tail knocks over a handful of cultists after she makes the leapt to upstairs.

Abby catches me.

“Where’s Rindy?”

“Negotiating with Wrath like a badass,” she says with a grim smile. She points to a separate room as she battles a bear and begs for parley. My eyes snap back to Therese. In that single moment, she is lying below the portal with what looks to be a death wound.

“No!” I scream and try to run, but Gen catches me. “Let me go. Please!” I beg. Abby grabs me too.

“No, hold on,” Abby says. “There’s nothing you can do.”

“I will die without her. Let me go. I gave her my immortality. I gave her my heart,” I say desperately and they release me suddenly. I stagger toward the stairs, feeling a strange wind from the portal. 

My hair sweeps around my face as I shove it away and collapse next to the body of my beloved. Trembling fingers touch her flank as I wail at thought of losing her. Blood pools beneath her body and I bury my face against her, feeling the faint pulse of her magic, growing weaker.

An overwhelming sense of fear and despair sinks in me. Terror, I realize as my eyes drift to the haunting swirl of the portal.

I will die with my dear, sweet kitten. A tear trickles down my cheek as I feel the weakness draw from me my own spirit. Pushing up with the last of my strength, I’m caught in a strange lull of energy as if it is the eye of a hurricane, before the last of strength fails me and darkness overwhelms like the bloated breaker against the shore, dragging me under with it.

Rindy

With a snap, I feel the dreadful action my mother has done and the house suddenly cracks and shakes with a massive earthquake. The next moment, I leave a much sedated joy, looking confused and broken at the trauma that had been done to him and the things he had done. All I could think about was reaching Gen as I leaped across a shattered threshold and I dive, wings wide catching lift against the strange wind of the portal.

I make it across the trench and catch her hand as she nearly loses her balance into another widening crevice and slam her into my body. Talons dig deep into the breaking surface as I lift her against me. Her legs slide around my hips and we slot together.

“Your mother—“ she says. A strange cry erupts again from the portal from the monster terror. Again the world shakes under the power of a monster who has grown stronger through the centuries. I don’t even remember another form for this creature. Perhaps it was once peace, but now it is this terrible thing, trying to enter this world in it’s true form.

Fear wracks through me.

“I can’t take you up there,” I whisper against her cheek. “I can’t lose you too.”

“You must. It is the risk we all took in agreeing to face such things,” she says. “I cannot promise it will be our last, but at least we will be together.”

“Come on, we have to get, Ro!” Yells a familiar voice. Looking over, I see a bleeding Abby. It looks like rubble has struck her head and Ruby, the dragon is curled around her protectively.

“Quickly, love,” Gen says, eyes wide as she takes my face. “The time is now or never.” I nod to Abby, who is climbing on Ruby’s back. A new wind flows beneath my wings and I run and leap with Ruby into the air to reach the next floor.

The multi-tentacles are flailing wildly around the bleeding Therese and the collapsed form of my mother. Her life force empty from her body, but still present somewhere intangible.

A tentacle strikes my arm and slashes my wing. Suddenly, I’m forced to land hard, body wrapped protectively around Gen as Ruby’s fire pours out in hot flames. Gentle water courses through my muscles and wings, healing touching me before I can even think to ask.

“Save it for Therese. She needs you more,” I say, but it’s much too late for saving our strength. I lift my sword and I drop Gen on her feet next to Therese. She is on her knees instantly to help and when Ruby lands with Abby I feel a strange surge of power and it’s like my mother is here, but she isn’t. A sacrifice given for another reason.

“No,” I whisper through the tears. Therese eyes blink open and she moans as I draw my blade again. It glows in a rainbow of colors even my own darkness as I swirl and swing the blade not for Terror, for that is a battle for another day, but the portal and with my mother’s sacrifice I feel the sword strike deep.

A flood of darkness pools out, shrinking the portal and chopping off the massive tentacles with a great suck as the taint shifts inward and with a snap my knees buckle. The fear that clenched in the pit of my stomach is gone, the oppression of the taint, and the curse, but worst of all is the presence of my mother is gone.

“This isn’t right,” Therese says desperately as Gen wraps her in her own clothe. Therese fights her way over to my mother. Tears run down her face as she sobs. “You promised. You promised.” She pulls Ro into her lap and kisses her hard. “Come back to me. Oh goddess, please, come back to me.”


	18. The Awakening/Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you think I'd really end it like that? Naw. I hope this is satisfying enough. Let me know if it isn't. I can work on expanding it a bit, but I'm getting the sense it's time to pack it away.

Ro

The touch of Therese’s lips stir me from a deep slumber. I blink my eyes open and look at her tearstained face and wonder what has caused her such turmoil.

“What? What happened?” Therese asks me confused. I think back to the hazy memory of confronting Terror and sacrificing myself for Therese. The power of my heart was given to keep her breathing.

Why am I still alive though?

I swallow and wrap my arms around her, weeping myself, because I’m not exactly sure what happened. Only that Therese is terribly weak too and then I realize in one terrible fell moment what has caused this. It’s impossible though.

“Goddess, no, Therese…you gave your heart to me,” I whisper. “No human has ever been capable of doing this before…you don’t understand what this means.”

“I do,” she says quietly. 

“You’ve barely yet lived,” I weep for the sacrifice she has given me. “If I die…”

“I don’t care. You are the best thing that has ever happened to me. My heart is yours,” she whispers and kisses me deeply. I press my forehead against hers fiercely and I can’t stop crying both from happiness, but also melancholy that Therese may die so terribly young if I do not guard my own life.

“We did it,” she whispers to me. “We shut the portal.”

“We did?” I ask and suddenly laugh as I realize the others are standing around us. Therese helps me stand up and Rindy pulls me into a tight hug and then Abby. “We did it?”

“All of us thanks to you. You someone how combined all of our magics to my blade,” Rindy says. “I was able to shut the portal.”

I shake my head and reach to touch Therese’s face and she leans into it with a tired smile.

“Let’s find a home,” I whisper to Therese and she enters my arms as I squeeze her fiercely.

Epilogue

Therese sits painting in her favorite room. It has a wide window overlooking a lake, forrest and mountains. Her face is grazed with wrinkles, each that I’ve lovingly kissed as they developed. Her artwork has grown even more prolific over the years and some of her best now grace palaces and even the museums of my own people. History will remember her better than me despite my longevity of life.

Even though we had the invitation to return to the woods, Therese and I decided long ago to settle here far from most of civilization with our closest friends. Abby has grown into a cranky old woman well loved by her fiery dragon and even Mrs. Robicheck has grown to adore her daughter-in-law. Rindy and Gen live in the woods, having travelled the worlds for many years together, frequently coming to visit and stay near us and always bringing provisions.

Rindy has grown into a strong warrior and now has the ability to change back and forth again between forms now that the portals are closed. Her retribution has been paid. Gen still complains when she is in human form and says that she has grown rather fond of her beastly form. I am glad Rindy has found such a person to her own heart too. Gen will always love her no matter what and that is the most important thing.

A sigh escapes my lips and Therese looks up at me with a wicked gleam in her eyes. She is the woman from my vision I realize. My eyebrows lift as she rises from her seat and crosses to me with her cat-like grace, taking my face into her hands and pulling me down for a wonderfully long and sensual kiss.

“I had a strange vision last night,” she says, eyes searching mine. “You came to me, your younger self…you amaze me, Ro. How you can love me like this and you’ve barely changed.” She twirls a single strand of silver hair in her fingers from my scalp down passed my shoulder. My eyes meet her still fierce green eyes. I lean in and kiss away the anxiety.

“You will and always will be my kitten,” I say with an adoring smile. “No matter the form you take.”

She grins at me, sharing the sweet taste of herself with me as she lifts me up and gently presses me against the wall.

“Well, I think it’s time for your dessert. You’ve earned it and a thousand more.”

“Oh how you spoil me,” I whisper against the heat of her flesh. “I love you, Therese. For now and always.”

“And I too, Ro. I have no regrets.” Her words are followed by hot passionate kisses as the curtains fall and our stories continue to be forever intertwined.


End file.
